Raven's Game: A Teen Titans Litrpg
by Darkmoon Overlord
Summary: Life has returned to Azarath after the defeat of Trigon. A new civilization is growing and prospering thanks to Raven allowing refugees to make a new home in the abandoned city of her homeland. As a reward, a mysterious merchant gifts Raven with a gift that will forever change her life. Pairings may vary, expect adult themes and language so be advised. Multiple OCs.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Teen Titans. It is the rightful property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network.

 **A/N:** Yes…I've returned. It's been some time and trust me it wasn't by choice. I have had one hell of a year. My entire life has been turned upside down over one thing after another, mainly the death of my mother this recent year. That was a hard hit for me. One thing led to another and well, I uprooted my life from my state and moved to a brand new one. I won't say where since I just want to have some peace and quiet for a change until some of these wounds heal up. Now there has been some confusion with my account. Mainly some of my responses to a lot of you. Well, that wasn't me. My co-writer, now my 'EX' co-writer is out of the picture.

Came to find out she had been a compulsive liar and had been taken credit for other's ideas and I've even found some of my personal work posted on other sites without my consent. Not to mention she constantly kept me unbalanced and wanted to work on one project after another without care of what other's wanted or my own feelings…so that ended.

Now that I've settled in a new state, in a new place, and starting fresh from everything and everyone. I can now get back to my deepest passion and that's here. On this site where it all began. I do still have a busy schedule, I won't lie about that. I'm still working out a few personal issues and busy with a new job, but I'm getting back into the swing of things and will be making a point to write something every week. Whether that'll be constant updates for one fanfiction or another, I'm not going to say for sure. It just depends on my mood and which fanfiction gets the most reviews.

All right, enough of my personal life…I can hear the snores. Heh

This fanfiction is something new and based off a type of literature I've come to love and deeply enjoy. It's also what helped get me through this year of hell I've gone through. Some of you may already know about it, but for those of you who don't, it's called "LitRPG": Literary Role Playing Game. Where game elements are introduced into sci-fi/fantasy novels. This fanfiction is going to be my experiment with writing one such LitRPG….so let's see how it fairs out, hmm?

 _So, let's let the dice roll…_

 **xXx**

 **Raven's Game: A Teen Titans Litrpg**

 **Chapter 1**

The marketplace was booming with life and business. Raven strolled down its street with an edge of excitement she hadn't expected. It amazed her that only two weeks ago, this very street was once dead and lifeless. No soul had walked it since Trigon the Terrible had conquered Azarath and taken all the souls of its inhabitants, save for one: Arella, Raven's mother. She had resided here all alone in exile for either shame for being a part of Azarath's downfall…for giving birth to Raven…or to try and keep a piece of the Azarathian spirt alive. Although she was not a native born Azarathian, she has chosen to follow their ways, as still did Raven.

Yet, it was a lonely existence and Raven felt it would one day be lost when her mother and herself died. Where would Azarath be then? Just a lost civilization forgotten by time and space? She didn't think about these questions until the day the first shuttle arrived just outside the city limits. Soon other shuttles began to land and Arella had contacted her to come back home to handle the situation, but only her. Raven didn't listen and brought her teammates with her. If there was an invasion, Raven wasn't going to deal with it alone like Arella seemed to think she will. It was one of the few moments she completely disagreed with her mother's decisions, and it wasn't the last.

It turned out the shuttles weren't invaders. They were survivors from other dimensions that had been ravaged by Trigon's conquests. They had been wandering adrift in their shuttles in sub-interdimensional space, ever since their planets had been conquered and converted into hell realms. Some had warnings before Trigon took over, the lucky few among the countless worlds and souls her father destroyed. They had learned that Trigon had been defeated and wanted to convey their gratitude to the one that defeated the demon. What a shock it was for them to learn it was his own daughter, but they did not see the evil in her…unlike her mother.

They were just happy they no longer had to fear Trigon finding them and finishing what he started. What they worried about now though…was a home. Unlike Azarath, their planets were still unlivable since they had been under Trigon's influence for too long. Earth and Azarath were spared the permanent effects because Trigon was defeated just in time for his effects to be undone. Unfortunately, earth was not a place they could ask for sanctuary because of its undivided nations and past history of aliens visiting the planet: none ended well. So, the survivors had hoped, with Raven's blessing, they could colonize and restart their lives on Azarath.

Arella was against the idea instantly. She would not have outsiders trampling over the sacred remains of Azarath, but then Raven countered that really no one had authority here to make that call. The city was abandoned, there were plenty of resources and Raven had scanned all the survivors or any traces of deceit or negative emotions to hint at betrayal. All she felt was relief and worry. Relief their fears were finally gone, worry that they'd have to leave and wander interdimensional space endlessly again.

So Raven overruled Arella and allowed the survivors to remain, but under a few laws she would see they follow. Azarath was to remain as it was, all its knowledge and traditions would be kept preserved by Arella…and open to anyone that wished to follow the Azarathian path. It wouldn't do if _only_ herself and her mother kept the traditions alive. Arella was not pleased with her decision but she saw that she was right. Tradition can only survive if it had people to continue it on. Finally, and begrudgingly, Arella gave in and began to see that the survivors understood Azarathian traditions and sacred landmarks.

Another part of the agreement was for a council to be formed to help keep the peace and establish order, her mother holding a seat on this new council to give her enough power to keep Azarath's ways alive and protected. Agreeing with these term, the survivors became the new Azarathians and soon the city began to flourish. Now there was new life revitalizing the old city and Raven found herself pleased to have been a part of it all. Her teammates had seen that everything went well and to help the new citizens settle in the city. They were just as happy as she was to be part of helping with the city's development. Once everything was fixed and there were no problems with any of the adjustments among the aliens and Azarathian methods. They returned to earth to continue their vigilance in Jump City.

But Raven liked to slip back once in a while to check on her home and see how well everyone was doing. Arella was actually diving into her role teaching whoever wished to follow the Azarathian way, welcoming whomever had the fortitude to follow the path, and seeing more alive than she had ever seen her mother since…ever. The councilmen were seeing that order was kept in check and there had yet to be an issue. Everything was going well.

She was just watching a set of alien children running and giggling as they ran across the market street, when she spotted one of the market people waving at her. "AH! Lady Raven! Savior of the lost ones. Vanquisher of Trigon the Terrible! I was hoping you would humble the front of my store!" he cheered with a foreign accent that sounded like silk honey, sweet and all too inviting.

Walking over, Raven gave the place a once over. It was used to be a carpenter building, but from the looks of it now, it had been converted into a typical trader's store. The alien that had flagged her down was unfamiliar to her, but then again she was still getting used to the various survivors that now lived in the city. This alien reminded her of a human with tiger-like features. He had a mane like a white Siberian tiger but no fur over his face. His nose was pinkish and cat-like and his eyes were the purest blue she ever saw. They were almost like liquid crystal and held an inner light in them, but she assumed it was more like they were reflecting the light from the afternoon sun. His attire was outlandish, a simple set of trousers and a white vest, revealing a very defined shoulder-line and toned, leaned arms ending with normal hands with cat-like claws at the end of each fingertips. He stood there barefooted and she could see his toes were similar to his fingers. To add to his cat-like appearance, a thick, bushy tiger-striped tail wagged lazily behind him.

There were a few odd items on the front of his shop, but nothing she was familiar with and was curious to what exactly he was selling. "So…whatcha got here?" she asked blankly.

He smiled and she could see he had a set of fangs but there was no threatening manner in his smile. It held nothing by mirth. "Oh, thank you for giving me your time, Lady Raven. As to what I 'got' here. I quite assure you it will be worth looking at! Please, come inside! I think there's a particular item you will find most appealing!"

Following the alien cat trader into his store, she marveled at all the items he had already set up for sell. Many of them reminded her of children puzzle games. Mentally, she was already figuring out how to solve some of them as she continued to walk by each of them, finding them very fascinating. "So…you sell toys?"

"Not just toys, Lady Raven! I sell entertainment for all ages to enjoy!" the trader replied.

"All ages…you're not selling…?" Raven questioned.

"OH! OH! No, nothing harmful, I assure you!" the trader said quickly as he reached his counter. "I do not condone selling any merchandize that is illegal or fatal to my customers! I strive to only sell whatever will bring my customers the purest enjoyments! If I sold anything that causes death or serious displeasure, I'd rip it off my shelf faster than traveling the speed of light!"

That wasn't really what Raven was thinking. She was thinking more…adult themed toys, blushing faintly at the thought, glad she had her hood up to hide her warm cheeks in shadow. But to keep from making things awkward, she went with the trader's assumption.

"How can you be sure? Something always goes wrong."

"Oh, that is indeed true…things can go wrong, sadly," the trader nodded solemnly, then he perked up and dove behind his counter. "That is why I strive with all my being to create products that bring nothing but joyful entertainment!" a few random items went flying behind the counter, but then he finally popped up, holding a rectangle box and placed it on top of the counter. "This is my latest invention! It has taken me all my resources, all my favors from all the corners of this universe…and even a few beyond…to gather the material, but finally I have completed it!"

"…A box?" Raven uttered, not at all impressed.

"Oh, it's so much more than a box!" the trader announced and flipped it up enough to reveal a multi-colored gem in the center of the item. He pointed at it and then ran a claw over the runes craved into golden metal encasing it. "This is the pride and joy of all my work! The Realm Matrix Gem! It holds the essence of creation, harvested from the center of the omni-verse! The center all that has been and will be! It was not easily obtained, many perils had been challenged and overcome to obtain the precious essence, but no one was sacrificed for it, I assure you! Again, I do not condone hurting others intentionally to obtain profit! Granted, it took longer but it was worth knowing I obtained the essence through honest means."

Raven gave him a long blink and then stared down at the box. "...You obtained the essence of creation from the omni-verse? Just to stuff it inside a gem to put on a box?"

"In order to fulfill my greatest creation, yes!" the trader said cheerfully, placing the box down. "But the box is just a toolset to allow you to experience the greatest source of entertainment! What it does is the real treasure! All powered by the Realm Matrix Gem!"

"What exactly does it do?" Raven asked, deciding to cut to the chase.

"Ah, yes, that would be the most important bit of information! I shall explain," the trader said and pushed the box toward her. "The box is able to refigure itself into the owners preferred method of interface. Once it has assumed it you can begin to input…whatever you desire to create your ideal universe!"

"Ideal universe…? This thing creates universes?" Raven said skeptically.

The trader nodded vigorously. "Exactly! I had visited a planet one time, although the inhabitants were primitive in comparison to many other races I have met, but they had one quality I found very fascinating! I think the planet was called eur-th?"

"You've been to earth?" Raven said, looking genuinely surprised.

"Yes, earth, that is the name! I have! Quite an interesting place," he said clasping his hands together in excitement. "Yes, it has its problems that is probably why they've yet to advance to reach beyond their own planet, but they will in time, I've no doubt! During my time on that marvelous planet, I discovered a type of game that I've never come across anywhere else! It was a simple game that consisted of the use of simple mathematical equations with the use of things called dice, but most important tool of all! Imagination! Ah, I played this game and I was hooked beyond anything else! It then gave me the idea of a way to make such a game even more exciting and that's where my invention comes to play!"

Raven went over her head the game he was talking about and she couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was Dungeons and Dragons. A strategy RPG board game that relied on exactly what the trader described. She was very familiar with it…since Beast Boy got it in his head to run a campaign and got the team to play it every Thursday night. It would have been Friday but that would interfere with his and Cyborg's game challenge night. This alien trader managed to create an adaptation to that?

Listening further, she continued patiently with the trader's explanation. "This box creates whatever the owner specifies. You want to experience a universe in the middle of an intergalactic war! Become the hero! Conquer or pacify the warring galaxy! Travel into the darkest depths of an ancient, primitive world and loot its treasures, become its explorer! Anything your mind can create; the box can make real!"

"But that would include dangers, wouldn't it? Wouldn't the box create methods that would hurt and even kill the owner?" Raven inquired.

"Ah! That is where my product's safety commands kick in! The inscriptions you saw around the Omni-matrix gem, and more hidden within it, prevent critical events such as that. If the owner was to fall into a situation where they experience absolute pain, there would be none. What they would feel is a sensation of weakness and inability to act and think clearly. Death is however the owner decides on how for the game to end. For example, if they wish to play until something kills their avatar to end the game, or try multiple times until their main objective is completed, then the owner is returned to consciousness to this reality."

"Returned to this reality? This box takes you to the universe you create?"

"In a sense. I will explain more in depth. The box takes the owners mind and transports it into the universe created. Once inside, the game will create an avatar for the owner to use and interact with while playing. If that avatar dies or the requirements of winning the game are met, then the owner's mind is instantly returned to their real body at the exact moment they entered! You see, that is where my product beats all others! For the owner, a lifetime can pass, letting them enjoy their own created universe to its fullest extent, then once they return, no time will have passed! They are then free to replay their created world…or start fresh and create a whole new one to experience," the trader exclaimed, stroking the sides of the box.

No death…no pain? Just enjoyment? If such a concept was real…it was too much to believe. "There has to be a drawback…nothing is this good."

"The drawback, my Lady…is that it's not one-hundred percent tested. I can guarantee that no fatalities or crippling agony is experienced, but I cannot say just where the safe levels of discomfort can go. My item will not kill but I am not completely sure how much the owner will experience in terms of pain. Some people have various levels of pain they can tolerate and others have none, so there is no exact safety pain level except what the owner inputs themselves. As I said, the game ends depending on how the owner sets the rules, but their mental state could be affected," the trader said honestly, stroking his chin in thought. "All the things they experience in that world will return with them to their real bodies. It can be a strain if a person lacks mental fortitude, so I have chosen to only sell this item to select group of customers until I can guarantee one-hundred percent enjoyment."

Raven thought about it. The trader obviously had put a lot of time and planning into this game. He seemed also very genuine about wanting nothing but his customer's needs and their safety. She sensed no ill-will or danger of any kind but she did sense power from the gem. She felt it pull at everything around it, but it didn't know what to do with it. She had a sense that it was struggling to do something and she imagine the inscriptions were preventing it from acting on its own will. The essence of creation itself…it had to have a type of will all of its own and that is where there could be danger. What would happen should the box be damaged.

Brining that question up to the trader, she said, "What if the box is ever destroyed or any of its inscriptions are damaged? What would happen to the person using the box?"

"Nothing, the material the box is made out of is indestructible. I do not sell shabby items! This box is the pinnacle of my inventions so I'd see that it couldn't be destroyed, at least not by easy means. Besides, the moment the owner uses the box, all time will seem to have frozen in real-time. Anyone that would try to threaten or hurt the owner while in game is impossible. That is why I had set that function in the first place. Safety is my top priority!"

"Can you be sure its indestructible?" Raven pressed.

"Right now, as it is, I could take a hammer and it would shatter into pieces. What makes it indestructible is that once the owner takes possession of the box, its tied to them and only them. It will then insure its owner's safety and generate energy that will sustain and protect it. In a sense the box is dependent on the owner for its survival, so there is little chance of it turning on the owner once the game is active. If the game tries to override its set rules and the safety protocols scripted into it would stop all gameplay and the box would deactivate forever. That is another safety caution I set up. The owner's safety and enjoyment are all that matters," the trader explained further and as earnest as he could. He really seemed set on making this work.

Raven hummed quietly to herself and she felt the need to touch the box. Giving into the slight impulse, she ran her fingers over the edge of the box and studied it critically. It was an intriguing idea. A way to escape reality…into a world of your own choosing. Never fearing real death. The possibilities were endless. "Is it only the owner that can use the box?"

"No, indeed not! If the owner wishes to play this with others, all they have to do is access the game as the owner would when they wish to play, but only alongside the owner. If they tried to use the box by themselves, nothing will happen. You are in control of when it beginnings and how it will end," the trader said quickly. "As I said, I modeled this game after the earthling board game. You can have as many people join you as you desire."

Okay, that sold her some. If she could use this game and bring others, then she'd be able to share her world and all its wonders. Again, it made her wonder what that would be like. "…Is there an instruction manual with it?"

The trader smiled widely but it still was all mirth. "Yes! I have a basic guide for an owner to read before operating the box! I take it you are interested, then?"

"…Maybe," Raven said, toying with the idea. "You never mentioned a price yet."

The trader bowed his head to her. "For you, Lady Raven. You have already paid it with your generous heart by allowing myself and so many other lost souls to finally have a home. The reason I had hoped for you to enter my store was to give you this box as a way to thank you for all you've done for everyone that once feared Trigon the Terrible." He looked ready to spit but then thought better of it. He obviously didn't want to dirty his store's floor. "Ahem, there is one thing I do ask in return, though…data. I would like to have access to all the data that is collected during your usage of the box."

"It records everything?" Raven said with a frown.

"As I said, you are creating a new universe within it. Like anything there has to be a data storage to record and save everything that happens. This is technically still in its alpha stage, so I would very much like to see if there are any improvements that would be needed before I can officially begin selling this item with complete assurance the customer will love it," the trader said, tapping the box with a claw. "If it's not to your satisfaction, I will strive to make it better or compensate for your time."

He really wanted her to have this thing. Raven toyed with the idea for a long time, staring at the box and the gem. It was tempting. Extremely tempting, in fact. If everything worked the way he said, then there would be so many that would want to get their hands on something like this. To create and live in the world of your making…to be its creator. The only limit was who the trader sold it to and how creative the person using the box was. She could play and no time at all in real-life would pass, that was amazing in itself.

It was still untested for the most part. Things could happen that may lead to disastrous ends. If one thing was wrong, she could die while playing or suffer massive trauma that would be worse than any physical pain she could endure. That was the risk. Yet the promises it could deliver were what kept her rooted in the spot. It was just a game after all, right? She's played with far more dangerous things, things that would mentally scar her teammates and other normal minds to the point of insanity, but those were things she'd never reveal to others. She was considered weird already, she didn't need to make it worse.

But with this game, she could do everything and more. She had done so much. Hell, she wasn't supposed to be alive at this point. Had her father's prophecy been completed the way he assumed, she'd have forever wandered scared and alone in the pits of hell that he converted the earth into. She'd have never got to see another sun rise with her friends. Do anything again that wasn't tainted by her father. With this game, she could deeply enjoy life…maybe it could allow her to experience real things that she couldn't normally. She was sold as soon as she came to that conclusion. It was just meant to be a game, and she was offered a chance to do whatever she wanted with it.

"Any data that is recorded has to be guaranteed to be confidential and never shared with anyone," Raven finally said as she placed both hands on the box and picked it up, finding it was lighter than it looked.

"Absolutely, my Lady. I will never share a customer's experience with another. Those are your private moments and yours alone. I will only make use of whatever data I find that may need improvement or better safety protocols," the trader said, immediately pleased. Then reached down behind the counter and produced a small black book and a small silver box. "Here is the instruction manual. The language will decipher itself so you can read it when you touch it…but this is the key to everything."

He carefully opened the box and inside was…a full set of gaming dice. From a d4 to a d20 die. The same kind of dice used for playing Dungeons and Dragons. "Dice?" Raven said, looking up at him with a deeper curious gaze.

"These dice are unique. They will be the key to tying it to you, and only you. Once you have touched them, you will take fate into your own hands and all possibilities will be available to you. I have put so much time and energy into the creation of this product…I am very eager to learn how it will go, but please, you have all the time in the world…of your making…to enjoy. So, do not rush, just have fun!" the trader said and pushed the box of dice to her along with the manual.

Raven placed the box under one arm and reached out to pick up the manual and closed the silver box with the dice and took that, too. "So…uh, is there anything else I should know?"

The trader shook his head. "Everything else you need to know is in the manual and whatever you yourself input into the game. It's all in your hands now, Lady Raven. If there should be any trouble make sure to place your own safety protocol should things get out of hand for your own peace of mind. Have a great time and a wonderful day!" he waved to her and continued to smile.

She gave him a slight nod and then proceeded out the store. When she was out of sight, the trader smile grew wider and he reached into a small pouch that was attached to the back of his trouser. Reaching into it, he pulled out…a golden d20 die. "Just as the roll predicted…Have the time of your life, Lady Raven." His eyes began to glow like true gems and his body began to glow faintly. "You deserve this chance at happiness. May this be a means for you to have all your dreams come true."

The glow disappeared and he put away the d20 die. "Well, now! Time for actual business!" returning to the front of his store, he began trying to draw in more customers. He had to make a living, after all.

xXx

Raven rushed back to earth through her dimensional portal, appearing alone in her room with her new items tucked in her arms. The first thing she did was immediately scan it for any surprising threats or even a trap. She might have felt the trader was honest, but that didn't mean she trusted him completely. She ran every magical test on the box that she knew and then ran them again. Nothing out of the ordinary was detected. For all purposes, it was just a simple box with a gem containing the essence of the supposed omni-verse. She did the same tests on the manual and the dice, just to be on the safe side. There was a power to the dice but they seemed inactive, but nothing different than what she observed from the box itself.

Finally feeling it was safe to proceed, Raven opened up the manual and began reading how to operate the box and what she needed to do to start 'creating' her personal world. It seemed rather basic when she was nearly done. All she had to do was activate the boxes interface method of her choosing after she took hold of the dice and let them bond to her. Once she had the bonding done, she was to place the dice with her palm over the Realm Matrix Gem, and it would react to her mental command.

Here was the moment. If she did this part there was no going back and there was no knowing what would happen next. Could she fix things if they go wrong? Would this be the step of something wondrous? Taking one last precaution…she placed as many seals as she thought needed around her entire room. The worst-case scenario, she seals herself and any dangers in the room with her, until her teammates could find her and help her out of the situation if she couldn't figure one out herself. Best case, nothing happens and she can proceed with everything.

"Here goes nothing…" Raven murmured to herself and opened the silver box and took hold of all the dice with one grasp.

Instantly, she felt power radiate into her body and connect to her center, the very core of her being. She gasped at the sensation and before she could think or worry something was wrong, the rush of power was sent back into the dice and they began glowing with her energy. She breathed heavily and watched as the dice began to change. Their simple color began to change into black and the numbers on the dice turned into white claw-like markings to resemble numbers. They felt warm and comforting in her palm and a sense of familiarity with them.

"Cool…" Raven said and then waited, curious that the numbers were white…not crimson red. That would have made them look cooler, but in a way it was nice to see the pure white numbers in the black.

She waited for some time for anything to happen. Nothing did. Seeing it was all right to continue, Raven went to the box and placed the dice and her palm over the gem. The gem shined brightly and she felt her dice sink into it until her palm now completely was exposed to the gem. The same energy she felt before washed over her and travel from her core to the box. Like the dice the box began to change and its wood darkened to a navy-blue like her cloak. The golden inscriptions remained as did the gem.

She thought nothing else was going to happen, but then a light slit appeared in the middle of its width and it opened up in a similar fashion of a laptop, and much like a real one…she saw a modem screen on the top part that swung up, and a keyboard on the bottom half…with a touchpad included. "So, this is the interface method…This works for me."

Figuring she had to turn it 'on' she looked for a power button, but the screen came to life when she touched the keyboard. She was introduced to a screen load-up and a program mainframe similar to the tower's version. This wasn't so hard, she thought as she started to browse all the 'programs' and found there weren't very many. One program popped up to her and it showed how to create new programming codes. This was what she was looking for. This was how she inputted her world of choice…now she just had to speak computer language. She experimented with typing in a word…and to her amazement, the program showed the word and then instantly translated it into ones and zeros and they swam into the screen.

The first word she had entered was: "Create."

Encouraged with this revaluation, she began to plan out what kind of world she wanted to try out and quickly went to her sources: mainly her copies of Dungeons and Dragons that she used when she played with the team. She read through all the material, a quick feat since she was a speed reader and had perfect clarity and recall. She liked that style of world and why she tolerated playing it with Beast Boy, but then she thought…why stop there? She wasn't limited to just what was in that version. Deciding to see what else she could use to inspire her world. She closed the box and left her room and the tower.

She went to the game store Beast Boy dragged her to get her copy of her Dungeons and Dragons books and her model and paint set. She browsed the store and found more games and books to aid in her quest. Taking the time to read through them all, she took mental note of all the elements and choices to add to her newfound project. She went through old ones (as this was a store that served all old-time gamers and new ones) she went through Everquest manuals, Ravenloft, then into Pathfinder, Starfinder, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. Then she thought why limit there? There were other sources. Leaving the RPG section, she went to the trading card games and found the manuals for Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Forces of Will, she stayed away from Pokemon as she really didn't see that working in her ideal world. A bunch of magical creatures captured with technological advance trapping spheres, just to call them out and make them fight?

Seriously, why weren't they called Duel Monsters instead of Pokemon? They were caught and then forced to duel with other trainers, so they were dueling monsters, hence Duel Monsters. That's how she saw it, anyway. Once she looked at the cards she then went to video games. One game that stood out to her was the Final Fantasy series. Oh, there were so many ideas popping into her mind as she gazed at each and every game she came across. Before she realized it, it was getting late and she still felt like there was more to search through, but she'd have to buy and play all the games to get an understanding…and she didn't feel very patient to actually play these games.

What she decided to do was return to the tower and access all the information and basic plot for games on the internet, watching videos of game trailers to get a better idea of the material. At some point she left video games and was looking at anime trailer and series. How she got into those was because some of the video games she watched were basically anime themselves, so it seemed logical to look at actual anime. She wasn't sure when she finally got done with her research, but at some point, the sun started to peek into her room. Glaring at the distracting light, she threw her curtains as tightly together as she could to block out the rays.

She needed to think and sunlight was just an annoyance. Pulling out stacks of paper and blank tomes, she began to put all her ideas down on them. She felt it would be best to get all her ideas down on physical paper than to just go blindly typing away with the box. There were ideas she wanted to work out before she made them real in the game world she was planning. Rooting through all the data she collected from her sources, she got a basic game 'system' layout she thought would work.

Her fingers speeded over the paper, reading over what she wrote and then rewriting some of the ideas, then rewriting again. Once something she felt was good, then she wrote them into a tome, wanting a physical copy to go back for re-inspiration. Then she repeated the process with other ideas that she settled on and perfected. Soon she had twelve tomes done, all detailed from classes to lore. Then she finally got to actual game rules. This was the most critical part of the work, as she read in the manual.

Remembering the trader's words, too, she decided to throw a few safety measures into the game rules and functions. What would be the point of playing a game where the moment you died, you had to restart from the beginning? She decided to add save points to allow herself and other players that joined her to respawn should things get that far. She wanted to win her first game attempt, that was a must to her. Yeah, that was important. Her mind was so absorbed with her work she almost didn't realize that the annoying noise that seemed to keep echoing in her room…was her stomach growling. When she realized that she remembered she hadn't eaten in a long time. Sighing at the interruption, she went to go fulfill her bodily needs, food being the top of her list.

She ignored her teammates, when at one glance, told her that they were up to their normal mischief. Her focus was on finding food so she could stop her stomach from making unwanted noises. It distracted her too much from her work. Finding some leftover pizza in the mini-fridge she devoured it without heating it. She didn't want to waste the time waiting for it to heat up. She even settled with guzzling down six bottles of water, figuring that would be enough to keep her sustained, or until her other body needs kicked up. Thankfully, sleep was something she could put off…so long as the sunlight didn't creep into her room.

This project…it had to get done. She needed to finish it she felt. It seemed obsessive in nature, yet she wanted this to work so badly!

At points she only stopped to keep her body going, meditating enough to strive off sleep. Whatever happened besides her work, she didn't care or was bothered. At some point she remembered that she was supposed to be helping in protecting the city, but she couldn't recall a situation that popped up that required her to do that. Maybe the villains were taking a break from villainy or something. She quickly dismissed the idle thought as it wasn't important enough to waste time on.

What mattered was for her to be left undisturbed. The hours speeded by unaware to her. She had no idea when it was day or night outside anymore. Only thing that mattered was making her personal ideal world, one where not only herself could enjoy, but her friends as well. It had to be adaptable so it was always interesting, so it didn't run the same course as a typical sandbox game or an MMO that constantly needed patches to fix or add material. This game had to do all that and more on its own.

This world had to be as real as her reality. No, it had to be better than that! It had to be a world where dreams could actually become real…where there was better karma, yet still had just enough salt in the gears to keep it from being considered nirvana. If it was too perfect, then it wouldn't be. Perfection was never possible as everyone had their own idea what was perfect. Also, it would get really damn boring after a while. This had to be a masterpiece, nothing else would be accepted in her mind. That was the conclusion she came to when she finally was done writing out all the information she wanted to use.

Once that was done, she went over all her material once more, a feat that took someone like her only three hours to do. Having been glad she did, she found a few things she decided to alter as it didn't fit with the mainstream of her idea. It always paid to write an idea down on paper, then go back and read it to make sure you had everything right. After she was done with that, she finally looked back at the wondrous and mysterious game box…

"Here we go…" she said, almost shocking herself as she realized that she hadn't heard her own voice, or anyone's for a long time.

She thought that it might be good to take a short break, but then thought against it. She had all the material ready. All she had to do now was input it into the game creation system, or whatever it was called. Sitting down in front of the box and pulling up all her information close for easy reach, she took the first tome and opened it, then set to the task of typing in the data. This was only the halfway point, but she felt a renew burst of energy as she saw her work being entered into the game matrix, seeing the words all disappear into code and soon streams of data falling down the monitor, then more and more as she punched in more data.

(One day later)

Raven closed the lid of the last tome and slipped out of her chair. Finally, the work was all done! She had done it. All the information had been inputted into the box and the system was ready to activate her 'game'. She was amazed with how advanced the input system really was. There were moments when it made instant correction alerts to her, asking if this was really what she wanted, and after taking a moment to read what she had done, she had found she had punched in a few wrong bits of information. She chalked that up to probably not having slept in…huh, what day was it?

It didn't matter. She had accomplished her work and now she was staring at a busy monitor screen overcrowded with code now. All she had to do now was push the accept button which had instantly appeared when she had found the function to tell the system she had inputted all the data she desired. Once she hit that button…her world would become real. Not even waiting to think about what her actions may cause, she hit the accept button and the monitor sent an alert:

 **'Congratulations, you have created your own personal game. Adventure awaits and glory to be sought! Do you wish to start the game now?'**

That made her pause and begin to feel just how tired she was. Her game was ready but she wasn't. All that time creating the game had completely drained her. As much as she wanted to go tell her friends what she had made, she felt she needed to rest. Finding her body was slightly too weak to move on its own; meaning she hadn't eaten properly and had most likely lost some weight. As good as that would do to her hour-glass shape body, it wouldn't do her overall health any good. Seeing food as the first priority, she levitated up and floated to the kitchen once more, going straight for the fridge and finding it packed! After seeing it was a bunch of cooked steaks and ribs in the fridge, her foggy mind clicked that last night was Cyborg's custom grill night…meaning yesterday was Wednesday. Tonight, was game night!

 _'Shit!'_ Raven cursed in her mind.

Cyborg always cooked this much meat so he had leftovers for Beast Boy's elongated game night. It was so he didn't have to worry about food when Beast Boy took forever to get the game's plot running along, also to piss him off as he knew just how much Beast Boy hated meat and Cyborg's abnormal need of consumption of it. Considering he only had his head and a few organs left, eating was the only real physical pleasure Cyborg had, so she never was bothered by it. He desired to find comfort wherever he could.

That alerted her to a realization. _'If Cyborg played my game…he could play a character with a real body. I hope he likes the idea!'_

Feeling eagerness swimming up in her, she decided to help herself to some of Cyborg's meat. Fixing herself a healthy plate and devouring all of it, leaving a nice pile of bones and amazing herself just how hungry she really had been. Once her stomach was satisfied and she felt energy returning to her body. She headed back to the Living Quarters to get cleaned up. There were only a few hours before game night officially started, and she needed to get herself ready to reveal her project.

Raven took a quick shower and then put on a fresh set of clothes. She had thought to try and take a nap before the game, but her excitement wouldn't let her rest. The need to see her friends' reaction and to play her game had her too wound up to try and sleep, even though she knew she needed to rest properly. She feared that she might oversleep and miss her chance, and since her friends had left her alone for so long. She was worried they may not check on her tonight as they hadn't since she begun her project.

So, she tried to plan the perfect way to introduce her game to the team. How they would begin it and what it would be like! She cradled the box to her chest as she might one of her favorite books, longingly wanting to explore what it had to hold for her. Finally, after three hours, it was time to go meet the team in the Common Room, where they held their gaming session.

Swiftly, she zoomed out of her room, box in hand, and arrived in the Common Room with a slight smile on her face that helped brighten her weary, tired eyes. The team was already there, getting the game table set up and their treats ready for the campaign. As usual, Beast Boy was dressed in a cheap-shop wizard outfit. Purple robe with stars and moon designs all over its surface and a comical pointy hat to match. He thought it was proper Dungeon Master attire and really threw himself into his role.

The rest of the team remained in their normal cloths and gear. As much as they liked the game, their pleasure in it didn't run as deep as Beast Boy's. They were content to simply play and eat junk food and have a good time…or seem like they were. One thing Raven almost forgot in her vigor with working on her game, was that Beast Boy's campaign was…a bit self-centered. Although he was the DM of the campaign, he still insisted on being a player as well. He played as the 'Glorious Emerald Warrior of Justice…and Tofu.' Seeking all those that saw the evil in consuming the flesh of other living creatures and bringing them to justice or enlightenment.

…Hence why Cyborg cooked such an insanely huge amount of meat before game night.

It irked the changeling greatly while he was playing and trying to manipulate the campaign story to his idealism…and at times, childish antics. In truth, the game was starting to get really boring and pointless in Raven's view. That was one of the other reasons she decided to try this game box out. No offense toward Beast Boy as they all knew he worked hard with his campaign plots…kinda…but they only played it because it made Beast Boy happy and no one else had time to really invest in being a DM.

Raven hugged her box a little more, and thought, _'Until now…Time to show them.'_

Approaching the game table everyone was by, getting near done with their preparations. Raven was about to make her presence known when Starfire spotted her. "Friend Raven! You finally came out of your time of seclusion! We were just talking about seeing if you were all right!"

Smiling just a fraction more at the redhead's concern, glad that her absence had been noted by her friends, Raven was about to explain herself when she noted something off. Mainly, the spot that she normally sat was occupied…by Speedy. "Uh, what's Speedy doing here?"

"Oh, I was going to fill in your character spot tonight," the archer replied offhandedly, leaning back in 'her' chair just enough so he was only on the back two legs and propped his feet up on 'her' spot. "BB didn't want to waste time or bother you, so he just called me up to fill in your spot."

Raven felt a tightness in her chest. Beast boy…replaced her in the game? Okay, maybe she was overreacting. She had done one of her isolation periods again, and she hadn't talked to anyone since she got the box from the trader…but couldn't he have tried to inform her before making such a decision. Glaring at where Speedy's feet were, she narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I'm here so there's no need," Raven quipped.

"Actually, you're not. Uh, sorry, but you were doing your disappearing act, and I didn't wanna waste time guessing whether you were gonna play with us tonight. So, I made it that your character left the team to go study some lore or whatever," Beast Boy said nonchalantly, as if the simple answer was enough explanation.

He…wrote her out of the story just because he didn't want to be bothered guessing? Her fingers tightened and her nails clawed at the box, yet they didn't leave a single mark on its polished surface. Did he even try to talk to her about game night? See if she was okay or if she wanted to continue being in his…lame ass campaign!? Her teeth started to grind a little and from the background, some of the equipment in the wall started to crack and spark.

A slight twitch of aggression appeared on the edge of Raven's eyes and she narrowed them dangerously at the green changeling. She wanted to think he simply forgot to ask her and just tried to salvage the night for everyone. "…Did anyone come to check and ask if I might be okay with that?"

"Nah, just needed a fifth player for what's happening tonight! Figured you'd gotten tired of playing and wanted out, but didn't wanna bother telling me you were. So, I just adjusted and called up my man Speedy here to fill in the spot, since he show's he wants to play my awesome campaign!" Beast Boy said brashly, not even looking up at Raven as he was setting up his notes and getting his DM stand set up.

Raven had to suppress the urge to grab Beast Boy with her mental powers and throw him out the window. The rage that spiked up inside her burned through her heart, and she was visibly snarling now. "That's it? You crossed me out without even checking to see what the reason was?"

Beast Boy shrugged, still not looking at her. "Figured you were in one of your moods."

"My…moods?" Raven growled.

"Yeah, you know. When you get emo and act like dark and weird like you usually do," Beast Boy replied simply, seemingly unaware of the danger he was getting himself into.

"Whoa! Beast Boy, that was uncalled for!" Cyborg snapped, finally catching the uncaring tone in his green friend. "That was really low, too!"

"What? She does! Last time she got like that, we ended up trapped in a mirror! Another time, she was talking to a book that talked back to her and turned out to be a cursed, evil dragon! Then the last time we checked on her when she was in her moods, her dad nearly took over the earth!" Beast Boy retorted, only then realizing just how wrong his wording was.

Slapping his hands over his mouth, he finally looked at Raven and…was shocked to see tears glistening just on the edges of her eyes.

"Oh, Raven! I…I didn't mean…" Beast Boy started to apologize but was stopped when a another set of eyes started to appear just above Raven's normal set.

The whole team tensed up as they watched Raven wearily. Just when they thought she was going to attack, she just looked down and pulled her hood over her head and disappeared into the ground in a pool of darkness, which quickly condensed until it was just a small spot, then it too was gone. Reappearing in the middle of her room, Raven clutched at the box, trying in vain to hold back the tears, but lost to them and felt them leaving hot, painful streaks down her cheeks.

"T-That….JERK!" Raven wept, trying to wipe away the tears, snarling in mixture of rage and sorrow that she couldn't fully suppress.

He had no idea what she had been doing! The time and effort she spent to try and make something special for everyone! Remembering that, she almost took the box and smash it on her floor in a way to vent her wrath before it manifested another way…but when she lifted the box over her head, she couldn't bring herself to do it. All that work…all that time…she couldn't destroy it just because she was angry with Beast Boy.

Carefully putting the box down on her counter, Raven collapsed in her chair and continued to weep silently. She was too drained and too tired to keep her emotions suppressed. She no doubt had destroyed quite a few pieces of equipment in the tower, but nothing Cyborg wasn't used to replacing. She didn't give a damn right then, anyway. She was hurt. Beast Boy once again was his mindless, stupid self, acting only on his own desires.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door, and her teary eyes formed into a glare. "Go away!" she yelled.

There was a pause, but then another, softer knock followed a voice. "Raven, it's Robin…"

Raven's fury instantly dropped, having assumed it was Beast Boy coming to make an even bigger fool of himself in his attempt to apologize. Trying in vain to wipe her tears away again, she floated over to her door and cracked it open and peeked through the gap. "…What?"

Robin sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry…"

That puzzled Raven and she opened her door just an inch more. "Why are you sorry?"

He sighed even harder and sagged his shoulders. "It's my fault, Raven. I should have checked on you to make sure everything was okay, I didn't know Beast Boy was gonna replace you with Speedy tonight, he just showed up suddenly. It's because of me tonight got ruined."

Raven wanted to roll her eyes but she knew that would be inappropriate. Robin was trying to make up for Beast Boy's stupidity, but she should have figured Robin would blame himself for what happened. It was just the kind of guy he was when things went wrong, and as the leader of the team, he took the entire team's emotional state into serious consideration. He'd put the blame on himself no matter what the situation was.

Raven pushed her door open and sighed herself now. "It's not your fault, Robin. Beast Boy is being…Beast Boy. Plus, I'm to blame, too. I haven't been…social…the last few days."

"Yeah, I was worried something was wrong…but since nothing bad had happened, we figured you were meditating or working on one of your spells or something," Robin admitted, then noted something. "By the way, what was that box you had in your arms a moment ago?"

Raven's eyes widened and almost started closing the door. "It…doesn't matter. It was something I thought the team would like…that's why I was hiding for the last few days. I wanted to surprise…never mind. It's not important." Raven murmured, not wanting to go into details right now.

"For the team? Can I see it?" Robin asked curiously.

Raven wanted to say no, just leave her alone, but it was Robin. He genuinely cared, her empathic powers were telling her as much. He was honest and caring…two traits that she really admired in him. "You might think it's stupid," she tried to discourage.

In Robin fashion he puffed up his chest and crossed his arms over it. "I doubt it! You wouldn't have reacted so much if it wasn't important, so I'd like to know what it is."

Groaning, she waved for him to come into her room. She had no desire to go get the box and then walk back out to the hallway, and her body was starting to final feel total fatigue. Her emotional outburst drained almost all her energy from before, leaving her tired and uncaring. But again, this was Robin. When he felt he had to fix something, he wouldn't stop until it was. Better to just get it over and then sleep and pretend this night never happened.

Robin entered her room carefully. He rarely ever was allowed into her room. Actually, there was only one incident he technically in her room, but that didn't really count as Raven was being attacked by Malchior after he revealed his true nature. Since then, Raven had only allowed Cyborg to enter to make repairs, then sometimes she'd let Starfire in for their meditation session, and whatever else the two liked to do together. He never pried further, as much of a detective as he was, he only did such when he felt there was an absolute need…unlike someone else he knew.

Taking the rare chance, he observed the contents of her dark room and found it was exactly as Cyborg and Beast Boy described it to be. Gloomy, dark…scary…just the kind of room Raven would have, but in a way, it really seemed comfortable and the dark theme reminded him of Gotham and made him feel a little homesick now. Quickly getting his mind off Gotham, he looked back to where Raven was heading and saw her pick up that box thing she had in her arms up in the Common Room. She cradled it like it was fragile and slyly approached him with it and then flipped it around until he could see the gem shining on top of it.

"What is it?" Robin said in awe, gazing at the gem.

"It's…a game. I…I made it," Raven said, feeling extremely nervous, followed by a few crack sounds coming from her window.

Robin was used to the sudden destruction of windows and such, so he didn't even flinch when they were made. In a way it was his only real evidence that Raven was feeling something. Looking at the box, he reached out to hold it and Raven let him. After examining it, he tried to open it up…but nothing happened. "Huh? How do you play it?" Robin asked, flipping it around, trying to find a latch or a cress that would tell where it opened, but for all his observation, it looked like a plain solid wooden box with a gem and runes carved in metal on top of it.

"I have to turn it on," Raven said, quickly taking the box back from Robin. "It's…soulbound to me."

"Soulbound?" Robin said and he quickly got serious. "Tell me everything about this box, Raven."

This was the part she was expecting. Robin was overly paranoid, but his fears were justified. So, she explained to him during her last visit to her renewed home, she was greeted by the trader and he offered her the game, and she was quick to inform Robin that she had taken every precaution afterwards to make sure it wasn't a trap. They've had too many incidents to believe in blind trust. Once she had been one-hundred percent sure it was as the trader said it was. She started making her game world, and that's why she had been a no-show around the tower for the last few days.

"Seriously!? This thing lets you create a world to play in? Like a real-live MMORPG?!" Robin said in astonishment. At first, he was hesitant with the idea, as nothing this good could come without some kind of price, but after Raven had finished explanation, taking more time about the precaution system set in the box to prevent players from being killed for real, he relaxed some, but not completely.

Overall, he was seriously curious about what this all could mean. A game where you entered and became anyone or anything you wanted…and then return back to the moment you started. It was too amazing to believe and he found himself, really…really interested in it. "So how do you start it? What does it need?"

Raven was taken a bit by surprise. She hadn't expected Robin to be so gung-ho about the game so quickly. At the same time, she felt all her hard work was getting recognized and she really appreciated Robin's trust on her judgment. Feeling that vigor returning to her, all ideas of rest were gone again.

"Once we have enough players…there's a cool little function that pops up," Raven said and places her hand on the gem. She mentally commanded that another player would be joining her, and from the side of the box, a compartment opened up to reveal a set of silver dice.

"Dice?" Robin uttered, peering at the compartment.

"Go ahead and take them. Also, there's going to be a folded sheet with character creation information on it. I went ahead and set it up like a DnD character sheet, so it would be easier. Oh! Also!" Raven quickly looked for the tome that she had written for player choices, grabbing it and handing it to Robin. "Here! This is all about making a character!"

Robin was shocked by how thrilled Raven was acting right now. He liked seeing this side of her to be honest and it made him even more eager to try this game out with her. Opening up the tome, his eyes went wide at all the information his teammate and trusted friend had done. "Raven…this is amazing. You did all this?" He picked up and noted the other several tomes that were laying on her desk.

She must have spent hours working on this stuff, nearly nonstop. That was when he actually glanced and really looked at her. Her eyes were baggier than normal, almost complete black-rimmed around her entire eyes. Her skin was paler than it normally was and her frame was thinner than it should be, to the point her leotard looked at bit loose on her frame. Noting that he stared a bit too long, Robin quickly averted his eyes. Even though he wore a mask, Raven was one of the few people that could read him with it on.

His observation was noted and Raven quickly throw her clock around her body. She must look like a real mess for how hard he was staring at her just now. The wave of emotions she felt from him told her such, but it was mostly out of deep concern. "Y-yeah, I should have taken a few breaks now and then…"

"Umm, yeah, but next time…let us know okay? At least so we could have started bringing you some food or something," Robin lectured lightly out of care.

Raven gave him a rare smile and nodded. "So…wanna try it out?" then she remembered that Robin was in Beast Boy's game. "Oh…I mean, later…a-after Beast Boy's campaign." There was a bit too much venom in her voice when she said his name, but she didn't care. He acted like a total asshole just now, so her spite was a given.

Robin surprised her and took the dice out of the compartment along with the folded up character sheet. "I think I'd rather give this a whirl."

"But…what about the other game?" Raven uttered in surprise.

He shrugged. "Beast Boy's game was okay…but it's just gotten so dull, and all I end up doing is chatting with Starfire while Beast Boy is on one of his long speeches he makes his character do. I'm really sick and tired of hearing about tofu, too."

Raven suppressed a giggle that nearly escaped her. "Me, too…"

Robin then started to ask more questions about the game. Raven willingly explained how she set up the system and even had a few choices for game campaigns at the ready. How many players could join, and he seemed really interested in that.

"So…it's as many as you want? Hmm," Robin pondered as a smirk rose up, then added, "Raven, take a small nap. I'm gonna make a few calls."

"What? Who are you calling?" Raven asked curiously.

"Our own game group. I'll tell Beast Boy, I'm out for the night, state I got a sudden call from Gotham or whatever," Robin quickly explained. "I shouldn't be more than two hours, tops!" He quickly ran to her door. "Trust me, okay?"

"…A-all right," Raven nodded. The sound of a nap really sounded good and she did trust Robin. So, she figured it be best to let him do whatever he's planning and take this chance to let her body and mind rest.

Floating over and collapsing on top of her bed, she was out before her head registered it touched her pillow. Everything blacked out for her, but then what seemed like a moment later, someone's hand was shaking her awake. Murmuring and planning on hurting whoever came into her room without her permission, her sleepy eyes cracked opened to see Robin smiling down at her.

Oh, right. Robin had left to go do his thing. "…Ugh, I feel like I just fell asleep."

"If what you told me about this game is true, you won't need to worry about being tired," Robin reminded her, urging her to get up. "Come on, I managed to contact everyone…but we're gonna have to sneak down to the basement."

"Basement?" that woke her mind and she looked up at him in bewilderment. "Why the basement?"

"Uh…Better if you see than let me explain," Robin said shyly, rubbing the back of his head. "Please, I think this will work out."

"Fine, but this better be good or else I'm going back to sleep…" Raven muttered, rolling off the bed.

"I'll grab your stuff," Robin offered, taking as many of Raven's tomes as he could carry.

Raven picked up the box and used her mental powers to lift all the books out of Robin's hand and on her desk and placed them into her shadow as she enveloped herself into her Soulself form, then whipped out at Robin, blanketing him inside her form and he vanished as she passed where he stood. Dipping down to face the floor, Raven dove straight at it and passed through it like a ghost, diving through all the levels of the tower until she stopped at the basement.

Extending out her wings, she and Robin appeared back in normal form and she quickly observed the room. To her amazement, there as a small table set up in the center of the basement and around it…were the unlikeliest group of people she ever expected in a room together. First person she saw with her arms crossed over her chest and hips to the side in a cocky manner was Jinx, the hextress herself. Next to her was Argent who was waving a friendly hello to Raven, to whom Raven nodded at. Behind her, lurking behind the table was Ravager, who was busy trying to blow a huge bubble gum, giving Raven a two-finger salute from her brow. These three Raven could understand being here, considering Jinx is a reformed villain that just formally joined the Titans North division along with Argent.

Ravager was somewhat of a surprise as she was the daughter of their sworn enemy, Slade, but like Jinx, she was reformed…kinda. She liked to go by her real name, Rose, when she was among those she trusted. It was the last two that had Raven really shocked the most to see in the tower. Blackfire…and Red X. Raven was nearly ready to send both known criminals through the wall when she spotted them lounging slightly away from everyone. Blackfire had her hands on her hips in a defiant, confident posture, while Red X was only sideways looking at everything with his back to them all.

"So…this for real?" Red X said, when no one was saying anything.

"What are those two doing here, Robin!?" Raven demanded.

"Well, Blackfire…is serving her parole here on earth after Starfire had convinced the Centuari government to ease on her sentence. She's been here on earth for four days helping out missions when a team needs back up," Robin explained.

Four days ago? Did she really lose track of that many days? She really needed to look at a calendar and see just how long she had spent cooped up in her room.

"Red X…okay, I had to bribe him somewhat, but he agreed to join, because at least this way he could spend one night not stealing stuff!" Robin continued, glaring somewhat at his wicked, former alter-ego.

Red X shrugged and turned to fully face them, his death-mask dipping down somewhat to stare at Raven's box. "Honestly, I only agreed to the bribe when Robin told me about a curious device that makes games real…" There was an edge of mockery in his tone, but Raven could only imagine that the thief was thinking about how to snatch such a thing. "Can I see it, please?"

Raven almost took a step back, but then smirked evilly. "Sure…"

She took out the box within her cloak and presented it to everyone. As predicted, Red X moved in to take a closer look and seemingly try to grab it, but just as he was about to. Ravager's swords were crisscrossed around his neck. She had noted the swordswoman when Red X made his sarcastic request and knew she was going to keep him in line. Red X slowly pulled his hands back and held them up.

"Okay, okay…can't blame a guy for trying, right?" Red X chuckled, only to get an evil glare from everyone.

Robin sighed somewhat then spoke. "It wouldn't do you any good, anyway, X. The box is soulbound to Raven and will only activate on her commands. Anyone else, it would be just a big paper weight."

"Hmm, so what? I could still sell it for a decent price…let the buyer figure out whether it works or not," Red X shrugged but he showed no more interest in trying to take the box. "Plus, I'm honestly curious if this thing works like you said it does."

"Why did you even offer him to come here, Robin?" Raven questioned at him, a little shortly.

"Well, truthfully…I figured we needed another guy in the group...and the other guys we know aren't into games like this," Robin stated, but Raven had the feeling there was something more to it than that. Was Robin hoping to reform the thief like Jinx and Rose?

He had his reasons and it kinda would be good to have another guy in the party. Robin being the only one with mostly all girls would make it weird, like one of those bad, harem anime series she catches Beast Boy watching when he thinks no one is looking. Granted there were still more girls than boys…but that could make things a little interesting in a way.

Maybe her still tired mind was affecting her judgment, or she really wanted an excuse to make this happen, but Raven found herself okay with this arrangement. But a curious thought crossed Raven's mind. "…Why isn't Starfire or Cyborg going to join us?"

Robin averted his eyes some. "…Star, wants to keep playing Beast Boy's game, and I couldn't get Cyborg since that would just make Beast Boy wanna join, too, since they do everything together and after the way he treated you, he shouldn't get to be one of the first to try this game out." There was a resentment in his words and Raven sensed a massive wave of jealousy coming from Robin.

Why would Robin be jealous…wait…was it because of Speedy? To test her theory, she asked, "What about Speedy? He seems interested."

A spike of hate and more jealously rose up in Robin, to which he tried to suppress it as quickly as it came. "He agreed to play Beast Boy's game, so I didn't bother asking him."

The way he said it made it clear that he was done discussing it. Raven would respect it…but it did make her very curious about what was going on between him and Speedy…and Starfire. She must have really missed something during her time away from everyone. Hopefully, its not as bad as she felt it was, but that was a matter for another time.

Raven decided to get things rolling and went to the small table. She imagined Robin had set it up for her. That really was great of him to plan for her while she rested. Before she started, though, she had to address one more person.

"Is there any reason you're interested in this, Blackfire?" Raven asked.

"Wondered when you were gonna get to me," Blackfire said sardonically, with that little playfulness in her tone she preferred to talk to everyone with. "Why I want to appreciate? It's easy. My sister had been bragging on and on about this nightly game thing she does with your team, and I got curious about it. We don't have anything like this on Tamaran…and from what Robin told me about this version. A game that lets me escape this world and be a whole new person in another?" There was a faint softness in her eyes and Raven felt a surge of hope in the ex-Empress of Tamaran. "How could I waste an opportunity like that? A place where no one knows me…knows of my family connections. It would be…nice."

Many things would keep another person from trusting Blackfire after those words, but emotions cannot lie and Raven knew how to read someone, even when they tried to fake their feelings. Blackfire was completely honest with her statement and that feeling of hope confirmed it for Raven it would be fine. Nodding to her, Raven pulled out the player tome and handed it to Blackfire first, getting a surprised expression from her.

"Here, go over this and pick what kind of character you want to make," Raven instructed.

Blackfire looked puzzled for a moment and seemed unsure what to say or do. Raven…just rolled her eyes and opened the tome up for her. "Just go over the character choices and once you know what you wanna be, I'll give you a character sheet and your dice to use for the game."

"…Thanks," Blackfire murmured ever so quietly and quickly peered at the contents, amazed at the detailed handwriting Raven had put into it. "…Someone's been bored."

Raven grunted and left Blackfire to her reading, noting Red X and Rose were peeking over her shoulder to try and get a clue of what they could be. Jinx and Argent didn't bother too much as they'd get a turn soon enough. Jinx sauntered over to the box and peered at it so close her nose was almost touching it.

"This thing really let's you experience an entire world like a video game?" Jinx remarked, quite amazed at the gadget. "Wow, if we had something like this in H.I.V.E…We'd…well, back then I would have done some really nasty things with it."

"It doesn't work that way. Only thing you could have done is what you let yourself do in the game. It won't affect anything in the real world," Raven informed.

"Yeah, Rob mentioned that," Jinx returned and smirked at the Boy Wonder. "Still, the fact he and Red are gonna be the only boys who are gonna join our little trip to Wonderland, though" A wicked smile crept over her face as she looked directly at the Robin. "So, Rob, things not all well in paradise?" she shot at the hero.

Robin visibly flinched and looked away with a grumble. Argent stepped in between them with her hands up. "All right, Jinx. 'nough of that sort of flim-flam. We're 'ere to have fun, right?"

Jinx smirked and wiggled her eyebrows at them. "Oh, I'm planning on having all kinds of _fun…_ "

Both Robin and Raven gulped and worried about what that could mean. The way Jinx was eyeing them reminded them of the cat that was about to eat the canary. They shared a look and noted the other had a slight blush on their face, then they went even redder and looked away. This…was an escape and Raven had set it so _any_ kind of activity a player wanted to do could be possible. Raven hadn't considered that sort of thing for herself until just now, though.

It seemed Robin had, too, as his whole head was crimson red and he was pulling at his collar. Was he really thinking about…that? What was she thinking, of course, he was. He was a red-blooded teenager and hormones ruled a good percentage of their thinking process. Slightly looking away and feeling her own cheeks heat up more…she couldn't deny the idea herself either now.

Argent giggled at their reaction and turned to Jinx. "This is going to be a fun night."

"Fun game," Raven corrected. "Time is going to have no concept to us when we start. Once we finish, it's going to be the exact moment when we started it."

"Huh, kinda like that movie based off that weird game…Ju…Jumguji?" Jinx uttered.

"Jumanji," Raven corrected. "And it's going to be far more interacting than that."

"We'll see…assuming we can get things going!" Jinx said, yelling slightly at the three semi-villains.

"Give use another minute…this is…detailed," Blackfire replied, her eyes keeping their widened expression as she zoomed through the material.

"Raven, I have to give you credit. You could become a great game designer if you went pro," Red X actually complemented.

"Shit, there's a lot of info but…you made it so easy to use," Rose added as her eyes were speed reading through the pages, waiting for Blackfire to catch up and turn the page.

It took them thirty minutes to finish, then finally Blackfire handed the player tome over to Jinx and Argent. The two quickly scoped the tome and were also just as amazed as everyone else by the information. Once they had finished, which took less time as they pretty much had an idea of what they wanted to do, then they handed it to Robin. He gestured for Raven to read it first, but then remembered that she wrote it and probably already had her own character planned.

He went over the tome and found he was having a hard time choosing what to do. In Beast Boy's campaign, he played the ranger, mainly because Beast Boy had made him pick that…as he did with everyone else's character. He forced Starfire to be the Cleric, Cyborg a Paladin, Raven a Sorceress, while he himself was the Fighter. Although he refused to call himself a fighter, always warrior of tofu.

Now he could be whatever he wanted and the chooses he had to pick from were so tempting. Before he could decide he thought to ask everyone. "So, what does everyone want to be…be kinda bad to role the same class by accident."

"Rogue," Red X quickly said, wanting to make it clear he wished for that class and wasn't ashamed to play as one, as he wasn't ashamed of being a real thief.

"Barbarian," Blackfire then added with a smirk. "Be a great way to vent some rage and have a good reason to do it."

"I'm going with Duelist," Ravager said next, touching her swords. "I like to get up close and personal in a fight."

He turned to Jinx and Argent.

"I'm going with Mage," Jinx said, wiggling her fingers. "Wanna stay having awesome powers, after all."

"Lancer…If that leads to what I think it does, I have high hopes for this game!" Argent said with a wink.

Yes, Duelist and Dragoon. There were other classes Raven added for anyone to pick from. She didn't seem to like the idea of limitations for anything for this game. If one could think it, one could be it in this game. That was why it was making his choice so hard. He wanted something unique that fit his style and everyone else had picked some good classes, but not many healers. He worried for a moment about that. If they didn't have at least one character that could heal, then the party would be in major trouble.

He turned to Raven, wondering what she was going to pick. "What do you plan on being?"

Raven understood why he asked. Usually in any game campaign, the last person ended up being the healer by default. It was kinda bad that Robin went last after he went this far to get people to play her game, but that was just how things went and she had one class in mind that she really wanted to try...

"…Bard," Raven said, leveling her eyes down to the ground.

Bard? That was the last kind of class he expected Raven, of all people, to pick. Then again, that was a really good class. It was versatile as both a support class, a damage dealer, and a healer…so Raven really could be anything they needed at any given time. Yet, having only one person that could heal was a drawback. If she was injured or ran out of magic to heal, the team was doomed. He eyed the Monk class really hard. It was perfect for what he wanted. A close-range fighter but would only be able to self-heal himself.

That still didn't help Raven. It meant she'd still have to be the main healer during a battle. He wasn't fond of being a Paladin, that was just…not his thing. Cleric, he could almost see being after seeing Starfire…He instantly dismissed that choose and moved on. He didn't want anything to remind him of…

 _'Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought…unless,'_ Robin thought to himself and looked at the Druid class.

Right away he could be both a fighter and healer, even the main tank for the group should it get bad for Blackfire's class. It was good hybrid class and it let him be as versatile as Raven's class. Having played as a Ranger, he liked the idea of a player that lived out in the woods, but it would be even cooler if the woods were more than his home, it was his ally. There were some aspects he wanted to try as well, like the shapeshifting ability. If this game could make him experience things like it were real-life, what would it be like to fly like a hawk…or prowl like a great cat?

He was pulling a Beast Boy, but he didn't care. He wanted to try something new and challenging, anyway. Making his choice, he handed the book back to Raven. "Druid."

Everyone froze and stared at him. Red X started chuckling some. "A Druid? You want to be play a character that's basically a tree hugger…Wait, that fits your whole iconic hero image perfectly."

"Yeah, I gotta agreed with Red 'ere. I expected Monk or maybe Ranger," Argent said.

"I played a Ranger in Beast Boy's game…not my thing," Robin grumbled. "As for Monk, yeah, I considered that one but with most of you guys being damage dealers and tanks, we need more support and healers to try and even things out."

That made everyone nod. Leave it to Robin to analysis a situation and come up with a way to balance things out. Raven felt like it was bad making Robin make that choice, and started to voice her change. "You don't have to be one, I'll pick the Cleric class and…"

He cut her off with rising a hand. "No, this is your game, Raven. You pick what you want to be. Beside, playing as a Druid will be a new challenge for me and I like a good challenge!"

Red X made an impolite grunt and rolled his head. "Can we move on now! It's going to be morning by the time we get this going!"

"All right, if everyone has picked their classes…" Raven said and touched the box. The same compartment opened up and Raven had each one of them, aside from Robin, come and take the silver dice and folded character sheet out of it. "Fill out your information, including a good background story for your character, and then we can begin."

Everyone did as she instructed, filling out the sheet, then looked up to her for the next step.

"Fold the character sheet back up around your dice, then each one of you place your hand with the sheet and dice in your palm over the gem," Raven said, pointing at the gem.

After they filled out their character sheets. They took turns and did as she said and were totally amazed when their sheet and dice were absorbed into the gem, each of them feeling a tingling sensation run through their bodies.

"That tickled," Argent giggled.

"…I feel like I was touched in way I shouldn't have been," Red X grumbled, glaring at the box, starting to rethink his choice.

"I liked it…" Blackfire smirked.

Jinx had a stupid smile on her face and she seemed even more ecstatic than before. "This is going to be awesome!"

This wasn't how Raven envisioned how her first game play was going to go. She had imagined Starfire, Cyborg, and that dick Beast Boy being the first ones to test this game out, but this was working out well. With this group, things would be a bit more unpredictable and that will make the game more interesting in the long run.

"All right, now…we can start the game," Raven said and placed her right fingertip on the edge of the gem. "Everyone place a hand like I did. All you need is to have one finger touching the gem, and since we have a large group. We won't have enough space if we tried all using our hands."

Doing as she said, they all circled around the box and placed one finger around the gem.

Raven took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. It finally was going to happen. She was going to experience a whole new world…one she made and live it! "Is everyone ready?"

"We've been ready. Let's get on with it," Red X said shortly.

"Before we can. One last thing," Raven said, ignoring the massive grown the thief and the 'tsk' Blackfire made. "We need to pick a campaign to play out…We have a few choices…"

Sweeping the room really quick, she saw the unhappy glares from everyone but Robin.

"…Or I can just select random and we go from there," Raven suggested quickly.

"YES!" shouted Blackfire and Red X simultaneously.

Seeing everyone else nodding, Raven then placed her other hand, palm down over the top of the gem, then sent a mental command. There was no spoken command or fancy speech needed to make it work. As soon as her entire palm was pressed down on the gem and she willed it to start. It took that as the signal to activate and it began to shine with a brilliant purple light, swirling with streams of white and silver.

Everyone wasn't sure what was going to happen and Red X thought this was a bad idea and decided to just stop while he was ahead…but when he tried to pull his finger away, he found his arm wouldn't respond to his command. It was frozen in place and soon he realized, his entire body was freezing up and he almost started to scream when he felt his entire being suddenly shoot down through his arm and into the gem.

The same sensation happened to everyone else. Robin felt himself in a freefall waving non-existing arms at anything to try and hinder his descent. Raven embraced the fall, knowing that this was to be expected and gazed with wonder at the swirling light below them. It fast approached them and in moments…everything went blank.

Moments passed before the first sensation of anything returned.

Raven blinked and felt real eyelids responding. She gazed up at a healthy, green tree shading her from the brilliant light of the sun floating in a clear, blue sky. She found she was laying on her back on grass that felt so soft, she could mistake it for bedding. It was so welcoming and relaxing and she almost thought it be a great idea to take a nap right then and there, but her curiosity overrode that impulse.

Sitting up, she found herself in garbs that were not her own, but expected for the character she had created. A lavender tunic with a black buttoned vest overlapping it, comfortable charcoal colored trousers and dark brown leather boots. Lying next to her was a purple guitar, fashioned with a raven's head crowning its top. Gingerly, she picked it up and the moment she touched it…she knew instantly how to play it! That's right, she knew how to play the guitar and she started strumming the strings and was marveled by the melody she was automatically playing. She had no idea how she knew this simple tune, or how she knew what position to place her fingers, but they moved with a fluid grace of a seasoned musician and they played a sweet sound that made something inside her feel so good and warm.

A surge of power washed over her as she played, it was not the kind of magic she was used to and it almost made her stop playing. Yet the music was too wonderful and her fingers did not want to stop playing, so she managed to keep going while the tune. Her playing did finally come to a halt when she remembered where she was. Quickly, she looked around at her surroundings and found six bodies lying about the grass.

There was just one sufficient thing, though. The people around her looked nothing like the ones that entered the game with her. Lying somewhat next to her by two feet off, was an ebony-haired male youth with pointy ears and dressed in leathers and a green cloak lying underneath him. His face looked somewhat almost shaped but there was still a slight square to his jawline that ruined it some. His frame was broad in the chest and shoulders and lean in the limbs and waist.

Opposite side of Raven was a young girl garbed in dark leather armor with red edging on the ends. Her hair was spiked up with red high lights…which fashioned just right with the pair of horns and spikes protruding from her skull, which fit with the black scales that encircled her chin and cheeks and around her brow, giving her contrasting ghost-white complexion more emphases, a long simple-looking spear rested by her side. On her right was a diminutive figure with green skin and large massive, pointy ears, a cute pointy face and pink hair done up in two high ponytails, dressed in a grey robe.

Next to her was another girl garbed in dark-leather armor and dark red skin…and serrated devil horns running along her forehead and up over her skull and into the next of snowy-white hair. Her face, although devilish had an exotic beauty that was almost hard to look away from. The only thing that blemished such beauty was the long thin scar that ran down her closed left eye. To add to her devilish looks was a tail that ended in a spike-tip point and was almost as long as her body. It laid curled beside her frame, motionless, leaving Raven to note the two short-swords resting in their sheaths strapped to each hip and thigh.

Lying straight across from Raven was the only other male in the pile. This one was really a sight to behold. He was dressed in loose black cloths with a hood over his head, but it did nothing to hide the metallic, spiked arms and legs and the spikes producing from his shoulders and knees. They shined like pure silver in the sunlight and were plated somewhat up the length of his forearms and shins, each plate extended out like blades. His hands were just as deadly looking. Each finger ended with a metal claw that narrowed to fine-point talons.

The last one was a girl wearing barely anything except enough furs to cover her modesty. What was for the whole world to see…was also covered in fur. She had an orange fine coat that covered her entire body, save for the black stripes that crossed down her arms and back and legs, and the white patch that ran from the top of her nose down into the line of her fur-loincloth. Her feet were covered in thick fur boots and her wrists had fur-cuffs that covered her hands up to her elbows, but her fingers remained free showing off the black claws-like nails.

Raven then wondered about herself and looked at her hands. They were pale but not the grey skin pigment she had always been used to. They were a pale bluish shade and shined with a lushness that was almost ethereal in appearance. Reaching up to touch her own face, she felt she had a perfect almost-shaped face and going to her ears she found them very long and pointer than anyone's here. They slipped out past her long purple locks and she could only imagine her eyes were slightly glowing silvery-white.

That would make sense since she picked to role as a Half-Breed Elf. Unlike a Half-Elf, which is simply a half elf and half human. A Half-Breed like her is an Elfling that comes from two races of elves. One of them was known as a Snow Elf. Hence why she had such clear and lovely features. The other kind she had picked for her character was a Night Elf, which explained her glowing eyes and why her hair was purple rather than pure snowy-white like a true Snow Elf.

There were many kinds of Half-Breeds but elves had more subspecies and were the likelier Half-Breeds around. There were some dwarves and even gnomes with subspecies, but Raven liked the elven race and their affinity with magic. Mixing two different kinds and having their traits, if only obtaining half of their racial traits would give her a nice edge, and either way, because both races were elves, she would have a very strong affinity to magic. She could have been a Wizard like Jinx or a Sorcerer…or even a Warlock, but she wanted to try something bold, something she never could be in the real-world.

Something…more expressive.

Being a bard in a world where she wasn't bound by the emotional restraints that her real body had to deal with was a perfect way for her to be as expressive as she wanted to be. It was completely outside her comfort zone and that was why she chose it. Playing as a bard would get her to try new things she secretly longed to do. Suddenly, her ears were filled with pleasant music again and she saw her fingers were playing the guitar again. It was so easy and addictive to do, she found.

Each note was like hearing her emotions given physical form. She could express she was happy. Her fingers twirled with a merry little tone, then she switched to sorrow and her sound became slow and daunting. It was just so simple and she loved it. There was no doubt anymore in her mind she made a good choice of what class to play.

As she continued to play, everyone slowly started to wake up to the music. The Half-Elf next to her was the first to open his eyes, revealing a dazzling set of emerald green eyes that didn't quite glow like hers, but they held a slight shine to them. The expected confusion crossed his face when he took in his surroundings as she had, noting her and almost jerking in surprise. Catching himself, he carefully sat up and looked at her, baffled when she greeted him with a brilliant smile.

"Raven…? Is…Is that you?"

She widened her smile and played a few short notes on her guitar. "Yes…It's me, Robin."

"Y-you're smiling…a-and…?" Robin, now the Half-Elf Druid, said while looking around in expectation. "…Nothing is going crazy around us. Does that mean…?"

Raven nodded and her smile grew. "As far as the game is concerned. I'm a full-blooded elf, varied by two different types. Nothing of our real bodies, save for our minds, followed us here into this world. We're…starting completely fresh."

He took a moment to take in his own appearance at that. Reaching up and touching his face and ears and flinching some when he pinched the pointy end of his left ear. "Ouch! I felt that…isn't the game supposed to null pain?"

"Only pain caused by actual injuries or death. Simple things like pinching and tickling are allowed, but to a degree. I made sure of that," Raven said, going back to playing her instrument.

Her playing came to a dead halt when an ear-shrieking scream blasted them all.

Jolting up to their feet, Raven and Robin readied for imminent danger, until they realized where the scream was coming from and both turned to the small green, robed figure who was wailing her lungs out to the heavens, then words finally followed the seemingly endless scream

"WHY THE HELL AM I SO DAMN SHORT!? I'M FRECKING GIZMO'S HEIGHT NOW!"

They faced palmed themselves and sighed. "…This is going to be a long game," Robin mumbled into his hand.

Rather than sigh, Raven was smirking and keeping it on her face. "I hope so…I truly, truly hope so!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Teen Titans. It is the rightful property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network.

 **A/N:** All right! I got another chapter up and done! Was hoping to see more reviews, but considering this is a new style I'm doing, I can't be too disappointed. Okay, some questions rising up and here's the answers: A while back, I lost all my data. Yes, I lost all my work I had for all my previous fanfictions and have been striving to redo what I once had. Pretty much at the point of scrapping it all and just starting over again, because the mindset isn't there anymore for some of my stories…and because half of them were altered by my ex co-writer. (seriously, not going to do that again for a long, long time, if ever.) Anyway, I know a lot of you are waiting for my updates for my other work, so please bear with me a bit longer. I am working on them, just looking at everything from a new angle.

So, with that said, don't be surprised if some of my fanfictions are taken off and replaced with new ones. I know some people like the old versions and I've tried to really get those back up, but its just not there anymore. The person I was then when I wrote them was someone I don't want to be anymore. I'm a whole different writer now and I want to do the best I can. Plus, I was very fortunate a few months back to get in touch with Stan Lee, and what he told me when I said I wanted to be a writer will forever stay with me. I won't repeat what they were because they were very personal to me, but the point was to never give up and to do what I think is good.

And if a man like Stan Lee tells you to aim for the stars, you hop into that spaceship and slam your fist down on the launch button and go for it, no questions asked!

I know I'm not the only person that Stan Lee has inspired, but I want to do more than I have before, and that's what the new me desires more than anything: Do what I think is good. There will be people that won't like what I think is good, but that's just life. Thank you for your time and I hope you find something that is more to your liking, that's all I can say about that.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. Let's get back to the game…

 **xXx**

 **Teen Titans: Raven Games**

 **Chapter 2**

The shouting had been unexpected but it served in waking up the others. One by one, they jolted up and looked around for imminent danger. Raven raised a single brow before sighing some. Seemed even in a game-like, artificial magical realm instincts still followed. Everyone took a fighting stance, reaching for weapons and gear they were used to having.

Soon realization dawned on them to where they were and sure enough…it wasn't Kansas.

"We're…in the game?" The dragon-horned girl said with awe, looking at everything and then down at herself.

"Nice deduction, dragon-girl," the spiky-metaled Rogue groaned, then seeming to remember something, quickly reached up to his face and started feeling around, only to cry out in pain when his talons dug into what actual flesh he had on his face. "My mask!? Where'd it go?" quick as he could, he turned his back to everyone and inspected himself, finding he had a hooded cloak, he yanked it up over his head in his failed attempt to hide his identity.

It really didn't matter. His exotic racial features made it impossible to recognize his real one. The metallic spikes and plates protruded around his skull in place of hair. They created a natural mask around his eyes and forehead and his race's eyes had mainly orange-colored irises with black rings around the outer iris. Even if they could see his face, it would be impossible to recognize who he really was.

Raven smirked and enjoyed the fact that she could without repercussion at his reaction and watched, and wondered, how long he'd figure out his identity was still safe. Their racial features were completely different from their real selves. Raven imagined if she looked at her face now in a reflection, she'd see a pale-blue face with purple marks like flames going down over her eyes and cheeks. Add the fact that she had a smile on her face rather than the blank, deadpan one she always wore.

But things wouldn't progress at this rate. She wanted to explore this world. "We done with being surprised in being in avatar bodies? Yes? Good." She got off the grass and used a hand to wipe some of the loose blades that clung to her clothes off.

She was about to say they should get going when a brutish, thick accent voice yelled out. "What you lot think you doin'? Lay 'bout in the sun like a bunch of lamed mules? Get your arses back to town with the rest of the new recruits!"

All of them turned to the owner of the voice and saw a stout, short man with a very broad and thick frame. He sported a massive brown bread with two thick braids at the end of his moustache. He was attired in thick plated gear and tapping a warhammer in the palm of his hand with impatience. "Do I need to repeat m'self?"

"Uh, n-no! We're just tired from the voyage, that's all!" Raven said quickly as she realized what was happening, motioning with her hands for everyone to just play along when they stared at her with confused looks. "It had been so long since we saw land and this was such a nice spot to enjoy it."

A contempt laugh barked out of the dwarf. "I don' give a damn what you reasons were, elf! Get back to the port! We've enough problems with Gnoll raiders on the highways. We don' a need to encourage 'em to try sneakin' closer to the port than needed!" Then without waiting to see if they would heed his words. The dwarf turned his massively thick, broad back to them and stalked away.

"We're coming!" Raven said and urged everyone to start following the grumpy dwarf.

"What's happening here?" Robin said, looking completely perplexed.

Raven moved to walk close to him so only he could hear her words. "This is one of the random campaign scenarios I created. We got put in the one I called ' _Kingdom of Zenoth'._ Basically, we're playing a quest where we start out as adventurers that signed up on a pilgrimage to aid in a new land that was discovered far across the eastern sea. We're members of the fifteenth voyage that was sent to help tame these still wild lands and to help build up the Kingdom of Zenoth. We're in for a lot of work ahead of us."

"So, it's a basic city development set. What are we gonna do, spend our time in this place collect wood and stuff like peons?" Red X grumbled irritably.

"It's more complicated…" Raven bit her lower lip, trying to find the right words to their situation. "This is actually the longest campaign I made for us to play. I had originally planned to play this one after we had become more seasoned with this game's system…"

"What does that mean for us?" the feline Barbarian finally spoke with Blackfire's mocking and impatient voice, placing a clawed hand on her hip and tapping one finger on her near-naked hip hastily.

"It means…until we help to build up the Kingdom of Zenoth that will survive the ages to come in this new land, we won't be able to return to our own world," Raven said with a very heavy sigh. She shouldn't have set the game on random. The chances of it picking the longest…and the most challenging of campaigns she created…were ten to one, but she should have known the odds would play out like this.

The group went silent for a moment as they processed what this meant. They wouldn't be able to leave this world? Not until this objective was completed? That was what she assumed was going through their minds. She hadn't meant for them to be stuck this long in the game, but they were and she wasn't sure how they'd take it.

Red X held up his hand to get her attention. "Isn't there a pause option or a save like most games? Can't we just leave after we reached a point, then come back and pick up where we left off?"

Raven grimaced at his question. "…I didn't install that option."

"Uh, Why not?!" Red X said with some aggression.

"It didn't seem to be a needed function since as soon as we beat the game, we'll return to the exact moment we entered it. I figured it would just be good to play the game until we finished it, but yeah…now looking at it. That's an oversight on my part…So, uh, sorry," Raven replied and sighed heavily.

"Then we seriously are stuck as these avatars until we complete the objective, and considering its building up a kingdom, that's going to take some time," the spear-wielding dragon-girl Argent said, not quite as happy as she was before. She was just as eager to play, but knowing they couldn't leave whenever they wanted, that kinda killed some of it for her.

Robin spoke up quickly. "You guys are looking at this wrong."

"How are we doing that? You're not the one that's stuck in a short, goblin body for who knows how long!?" the short and green mage, Jinx, exclaimed loudly, waving her short arms wildly at him.

"Not our fault you picked such a lame creature to play," Blackfire said with a fanged smirk.

"I didn't pick it!" Jinx replied with even more hostility.

That made the group pause and turn to Raven.

Raven narrowed her eyes in thought, then asked. "What did you put down as your race, Jinx? Everything on your character sheet should have been exactly as you put it." She looked at everyone. "Did you guys pick other things?"

"No, I picked being a Half-Elf Druid," Robin said.

"Same," said the other girls, minus Jinx.

"I didn't expect to look like this, but I did pick this particular race for its benefits," Red X added, admiring his arms and metallic claws. "Fits my theme, you know?"

"What are you exactly?" Blackfire asked curiously.

"He's a Vulshok," Raven answered for him, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "They're a race that live on a metallic plane where almost everything is metal. They happened upon a way to enter this plane after it was discovered their plane was artificially created, and their ancestors originally were kidnapped and magically engineered to survive in the hazardous environment."

"Sounds familiar…" Robin murmured, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Okay, that explains why he looks like Shredder, but why did Jinx get turned into a goblin?" Rose said, her new tail swishing back and forth behind her aggressively, in what some might assume was a sign of impatience.

"Hmm…Jinx, what did you put in the race option?" Raven asked again after a moment.

"I didn't put anything! I don't like playing other races, so I just expected to play as myself. Figured leaving it blank would let me play an avatar like my real body," Jinx grumbled, folding her arms underneath…quite a noticeable chest.

She might have turned into a short goblin but her miniature physique was quite appealing. A semi-thick curvy body with broad hips and a tight rump and a decent size bust that balanced it out. Yes, she was a goblin but she was actually quite a hot, looking goblin.

After that analysis—and trying to not admit that she just called Jinx hot as a goblin—Raven realized what must have happened. "Random Selection."

"What?" Jinx uttered.

"Like with the campaign. Since we didn't specify which campaign we wanted to play, it selected one at random. Same thing will probably happen if we hadn't set our avatars as we wanted. Because Jinx didn't specifically put being a human as her race, the system randomly picked one for her…hence her being a goblin," Raven explained to the group.

"That makes sense…and glad I took an extra minute to pick being a Khajiit," Blackfire said after that, looking down at her feline, hourglass shaped waistline. "I could have suffered the same fate had I not…and that would have been a serious drag…"

Red X glanced over and admired her feature, too. "Yeah, that really would have been a shame," he said with a smirk on his face.

Blackfire flashed him her set of feline fangs. "Look…but don't think about touching."

"Aww, this is a game, after all? We're here to enjoy ourselves. Why not start getting friendly as soon as we can, huh?" Red X retorted with mock friendliness.

Blackfire just widened her smile, showing off more of her sharp teeth. "Try it…" she said as she flexed her right hand, giving the Rogue a good view of her claws. "I'd like to see how good of a scratching post you'd make to test these out on."

Rose rolled her eyes and spoke up before any more failed flirtation came out of the annoying thief's mouth. "Standing around isn't going to get us anywhere. If we've gotta finish this game, then we better get started as soon as possible."

Raven was in agreement. She didn't feel like wasting the first few minutes of the game watching Red X make an ass of himself. "That's what I'm thinking. Let's meet up with the 'recruits' like the dwarf wanted. Once we're there, we should start getting quests we can undertake to start leveling up ourselves."

"By quests, you mean actual labor?" Blackfire groaned, rolling her cat eyes. "That is so not me. Besides, you made this game, can't you just make us level up high enough to finish it?"

Raven gave her a look that clearly said that was a stupid question to ask. "I can't undo anything inside the game. Once it starts, there's no undoing. We're stuck as we are and the only way we're going to complete it is making sure our characters can survive whatever will come at us."

"Whatever will come at us? Don't you know?" Robin said with some worry in his voice.

"…I wanted this game to be unlike any other. So, I had made it to where the quests would be random or whatever needs by the NPCs of this world require at the time. It's not a set game like most MMORPGs. That's why I really regret not picking the campaign before we jumped into it. I'm as unsure as you guys what exactly will happen next. I know the base point but in terms of exact details, that's going to be as random as real life is," Raven replied, hugging at the guitar in her arms.

The mood was once again dampened. This wasn't how she wanted to start things out, but these were the facts now and they couldn't do anything about it. Best thing to do was move forward like Rose said. "We can't keep dwelling on this. Let's get going or we'll never go back to our real world."

"Hell yeah! I don't want to be stuck in this body any longer than I need to be!" Jinx proclaimed and started stomping down the hill in the direction the ill-tempered dwarf went.

As that point had put an end to the argument, the group agreed and followed Jinx down to the small dirt road and they traveled down it, until they came to a small settlement that looked more like a dock. Just past the wooden port was a vast sparkling sea. Waves rolled lazily up to its beach and the glimmering water added to the beautiful sight. Now…if only the smell matched its sight. The heavy aroma of decaying seaweed that rolled up on the beach and fish hit them hard.

"Ugh, this is disgusting!" Blackfire was the first to say, covering her nose as best she could. She found the species she had chosen had a very acute sense of smell and the stench of the port was nearly burning her nostrils.

"Thought all cats like fish?" Red X joked.

"Shut up!" Blackfire snapped, almost taking a swipe at him with her claws.

"I kinda agree, though. Shouldn't it smell better?" Argent said, trying to not let the smell get to her, but clearly it was.

"Again…realism," Raven said, but she also was thinking this was another mistake on her part. It was just a bit too real and the smell was too much to handle.

"Realism blows…" Jinx muttered, both hands covering her face and looking greener than she already was.

"Let's just find out what we need do next and get the hell out of here," Rose said, doing a better job at not letting the smell get to her, even though her stomach was reeling in revulsion.

They entered the dock settlement and looked around for anything that might give them a clue. No sooner had they entered they saw a group of people all huddled around a wooden stage set up in the middle of what probably was the town's square. On the stage was the dwarf that greeted them, giving everyone in the crowd the same baneful glare and looking ready to start bashing in a few skulls. Next to him was a small figure with a balding head with patches of grey just over his ears that grew down into a thick, bushy moustache on his pudgy face. He was almost the same height as Jinx and had arms and legs of the same length as hers, but where's she had sharp, angular features, this man had round, soft ones with huge eyes that fit with his pudgy-shaped head.

Raven quickly recognized him as a gnome, or roughly how she had set a gnome would look like in this world, and urged everyone to hurry over to the stage.

As they approached, they saw the gnome waving his tiny arms in an attempt to get everyone's attention as he spoke with a rather loud and clear tune of authority. "Welcome, welcome all! It gladdens this heart of mine to see so many eager people who have taken up the challenge of entering this new world! Many of you came here to seek fortune and glory. Others, I see, simply want to start a new life. All that and more awaits you once you depart from Greenwell Port!"

Raven's group remained somewhat apart from the main mass, not wanting to get tangled and separated, but they could hear the gnome so clearly, it was as if they were standing at the front row.

"Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way…I fear I must deliver dire news. The roads leading to the growing capital has been under siege by a group of Gnolls. They've been raiding our caravans since the route had been established, and many lives have been lost due to this. We cannot risk non-combatants to travel the road until the Gnoll threat has been eliminated. With that said, we are looking for eager…more preferably experienced…adventurers to head out and hunt down these Gnolls," the gnome continued with his speech, then with a slight hand gesture, he drew everyone's attention to the snarling dwarf. "Grum, here, has all current details pertaining to the Gnolls as we know so far. If anyone wishes to undertake this mission. Please, speak to Grum."

Some in the audience looked at the dwarf and then quickly away when the dwarf locked his piercing, intimidating glare at them when he noted them looking. Raven sighed inward but was one of the few that managed not to flinch when the dwarf's eyes landed on her. _'…If I had my empathic powers, my skin would be burning from the heat from that hateful glare. What's with this NPC? I don't remember making one so disliking towards everyone.'_

Had she done too good of a job when she created this game? Wait, that wasn't accurate anymore. They were in a literal world now. Even if it was just a game to them, all these NPCs would regard it as the real thing. That was what Raven had set out to do, after all. So, wouldn't it be plausible that with the natural progression of a world, the NPCs would adapt and react to the world as a real person would? If they were this real…could she have really created real life by accident? She would need to experiment to see if what she created was more than just a game…

"Let's head over to the edge of town," Raven suddenly spoke up, gaining the attention of the group.

"Uh, shouldn't we go get the quest from the dwarf?" Robin inquired curiously, pointing at said dwarf who had exited the stage and was stomping away.

"There's something we need to do before we go accept the…quest," Raven said, then started walking off without waiting to see if they'd follow.

The group shared a curious look with one another, but silently started moving in the direction Raven went. When they had reached the edge of town, Raven turned to them and placed one hand on her hip and raised one hand up. Just two inches away from her palm, a green menu window popped into existence. None of them could read it when they tried to focus on it, but Raven seemed to understand what was displayed on it.

 _Name: Raven_

 _Race: Half-Breed: (Snow Elf/Night Elf)  
Character Level: 1_

 _Attributes:_

 _-HP: 120 (1.5 when not in combat)_

 _-MP:280 (1.2 regen rate)_

 _-SP: 170 (1.4 regen rate)_

 _-Strength: 5_

 _-Constitution: 10 (5+ for class profession) 15_

 _-Intelligence:10 (9+ for racial perks) 19_

 _-Dexterity:8 (4+ for racial perks) 12_

 _-Agility: 9_

 _-Wisdom: 10_

 _-Charisma 9 (2+ for class profession) 11_

 _-Luck: 9_

 _Class: Bard_

 _Class Traits:  
-Bardic Inspiration  
-Spellcasting_

 _-Song Lure  
-Level 1_

 _Spell List:_

 _-Quicken Tempo (For one minute, Allies Bard casts spell on is given a +5 boost in Agility and Dexterity.) MP Cost: 40_

 _-Blinding Melody (Target is blinded for a two-minute duration.) MP Cost: 15_

 _Racial Traits: Half-Breed/Elf_

 _-Mental fortitude (Half-Elf/Half-breed perk: 50% increase rate.)  
-Spiritual Awareness (70% increase rate for picking two subspecies of same race.)_

 _-Mana Manipulation (70% increase rate for picking two subspecies of same race.)_

 _-Arcane Insight (70% increase rate for picking two subspecies of same race.)_

 _-Ice Manipulation (Snow Elf ability: Alert, because you have selected to be a Half-Breed. This trait will only increase by 30% rather than 70% had you chosen only Snow Elf as your main race.)_

 _-Shadow Manipulation (Night Elf ability: Alert, because you have selected to be a Half-Breed. This trait will only increase by 30% rather than 70% had you chosen only Night Elf as your main race.)_

 _Note: Due to being a Half-Breed you do not gain all Racial Traits of selected races. If you desire to obtain more traits. Must seek them out through trial, tomes, and a little luck._

 _EXP: 0/150 to next level_

"Good, the menu system works as I had set it," Raven said, impressed with her character sheet, then took her eyes off the floating screen and toward her companions. "We all have a menu to access our stats and abilities. If you want to access your personal information and upgrade yourself this is where you need to do it at. Right now, we all are at level one so we have to work on building ourselves up as much as possible."

"That's a giving, what else Sherlock?" Red X grunted, earning a death glare from Robin.

"The leveling system…It's not like other games where you just grind and level up and automatically gain abilities and spells depending on your class you've chosen. Had we not picked any classes, we'd be starting at level zero and would have had to grind at all kinds of things to unlock a class," Raven said, answering Red X regardless of his snide remark.

"Then, had we started the game like that, we'd literally be no stronger than an average citizen. If you had it set up that way, why let us select a class then?" Jinx asked.

"Since this is our first game and testing out the functions. I figured it be easier for everyone have a pre-start class to get used to everything," Raven replied back and started to smirk as realization dawned on all their eyes. "Maybe next game we can try starting with no classes and see how things go."

Rose thought about what Raven told them. "So…what you're saying. We're not limited to just the class we picked. We can take on other classes?"

"Exactly, if I got tired of being a bard and focused more on spellcrafting by reading tomes or scrolls, I could unlock the mage class and be like Jinx. If I decided to wield daggers and focus on stealth kills, eventually I would unlock the rogue class after accomplishing enough successful attempts," Raven continued her explanation, her smirk widening. "In other words, we can be anything we want depending on what we work on."

"That sounds a little like cheating, but considering we're stuck in this game until we beat it…that would give us an edge," Argent said, rubbing her chin.

Red X shrugged. "It's an advantage and I like it. We should exploit whatever we can. This is a game, after all. So, we just need to know what it'll take to unlock certain classes. Raven, do you at least know how we can do that during game time?"

Once more ignoring his sardonic tone, she nodded, "That system is set no matter how random the game plot goes. Like I said, it all depends on how we raise our stats. Some abilities will become available to use, too, depending on what actions we do, which in turn will aid in unlocking more classes."

"In other words, if I wanted to be a monk, I'd just have to raise up my hand-to-hand combat skills, right?" Robin said after giving it some thought.

"Close, you'd be more of a brawler, or a pugilist at best. You'd have to unlock how to use Ki in order to gain that class," Raven said with a nod, then looked back at her menu. "But before we do anything else. I want everyone to open their menus and add each other into our Friend's List. That way we can communicate with each other no matter where we are…and I think you'll like how this function works." She motioned for everyone to raise their hands. "In order to bring out your menu, simply think about it with your hand up and it will appear."

Doing as she said, they all opened up their menu screens.

"Oh, this is cool," Argent remarked, reading the contents of her menu, finding everything in her character stats was there. "Oh, wow, I've got higher dexterity than I thought I would."

"It's the perks added to being a Lancer, so you'll naturally have bonuses to your stats depending on what class you are," Raven said, moving her finger down her menu and finding the section to open up the Friend's List option.

Robin looked at his stats and found his wisdom was his highest perk, but he had very low strength. That he didn't like. Being a fighter by nature he understood the importance of physical prowess when in a real fight. He should have gone with monk when he had the chance. Bitterness started to overcome him but then he looked up at Raven's excited face, and he remembered why he picked being a druid. It was to help her with support for the team. This was her game, her time to be in the lead.

This was supposed to be fun anyway and it be nice not being the leader for once.

That didn't mean he wouldn't try to pursue unlocking the monk class later, though. That would become one of his long-term goals once he was more accustomed to how this game world worked. For now, he was going to just go with the flow, but still he had to ask…

"If we can play other classes, how do we switch?"

Raven reward him with a brilliant smile. "You don't."

"What?" Everyone uttered.

Raven took in a long breath for the lengthy explanation. "We don't which classes, at all. What classes we gain are added to our main one. There are sub-classes but those are more for crafting professions, like Tailor, Blacksmith, even Fisher. But when we unlock a class, we can add its abilities and traits to ourselves."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute!" Jinx cut her off, waving her short arms up in the air to gain her attention. It was something that Gizmo would do, otherwise no one would pay attention unless he screamed at the top of his lungs. "So, you're saying we can become anything at all…at once?"

"Within certain limits, but yes," Raven nodded.

"What limits are we talking about then?" Red X said, wanting a clear understanding. He didn't like not knowing unknown variables. It made for a poor heist. If there was a weakness in a plan, a faulty tool that may or may not break at a critical junction, you get rid of it. You find something that works or you improve it. That's why he risked so much to get the suit Robin made…it was the perfect tool.

Raven had the answer ready. "Take the archer class. It uses bow and arrows mainly for offense and stealth kills. Ideal if you want to be far away and kill, but if you want to use swords and shields, like most tank classes…then it would be pointless. What you'd want to do is obtain classes that complement one another. Taking the archer class again as an example, you'd be better adding the rogue class or even a magic class to it. Say you want to shoot more deadly arrows, use rogue's knowledge of poisons to coat the arrows, or use a magic class to imbue the arrows with magic properties to deliver more destructive damage."

She waited a moment to let everyone process what that all meant. As she hoped, everyone appeared to understand.

Blackfire hummed as she stroked her chin with her fingers, careful of the claws now on each end of them from accidentally cutting her. "But if we wanted to give up a class that doesn't complement one. All we'd have to do is give up working on raising that class in favor of the one we feel is better, correct?"

"You got it," Raven confirmed.

Blackfire smiled and pondered on the possibilities of what this could lead for her in this world.

She wasn't the only one. Everyone was now considering what this could mean for them. A warrior that could cast a spell while in the middle of a sword fight? A rogue that could use healing magic on themselves after taking too much damage?

"So…We Skyrim it," Robin smirked.

He was surprised when Raven giggled in response. Raven…giggled...

"Kinda but you'll find my version way better," she grinned.

"I can't wait to see…" Robin replied, smirking at her. He was really liking this new Raven. She was confident and carefree…and…and…

He kept smirking but he averted his eyes down, not wanting to finish where his train of thought was taking him. "We better get started now, huh?"

Raven noticed his action and wondered what had just gone through his mind. Back in the real world, all she had to do was use her empathic powers to read his emotions and she could quickly deduce what it might have been…but in this world, all those powers were with her moody, monotone self. Here was clueless to what others felt…and it was liberating in a way. She didn't constantly have other people's emotions bombarding her, never having to deal with someone else's sorrow, their anger, their joy. She could now focus on only her own emotions and she found it so fulfilling. This was the freedom she had wanted all her life!

Quickly skipping back toward the port, yes, she was frecking skipping, she looked back at her group and waved. "Come on, let's get our game on!"

"Is she skipping?" Red X pointed out.

Robin just shrugged and smiled. "Yeah…she is."

Jinx grunted and starting jogging after the skipping Half-Breed. "Sure, make it harder for the one with short, stubby legs!"

They broke out in a small chuckle and hurried after Raven, who was heading in the direction the angry dwarf went. The path led them to a wide post board that was filled with parchment that was scattered across its front. Any gamer worth their controller knew this was a typical quest board, where players could find jobs or quests to take on to get money, EXP, or just to progress whatever the main campaign was. There were a few people by it, looking at the available quests, but none of them went near the dwarf. He seemed to repel everyone with just his constant glare and had a feel around him that screamed violence.

Raven didn't let that stop her from approaching the angry dwarf. She didn't want to waste time on basic quests that would send them fetching an item, delivering something, or harvesting little critters out in the nearby wilds. If she was on her own, that would be one thing, but since she had her friends…and acquaintances…she had a big enough party for them to handle whatever they may face. Walking right up the glaring dwarf, Raven placed one hand on her hip and held up one to gesture at her party.

"We'd like to help deal with the Gnoll situation," Raven announced.

The dwarf only continued to glare at her. It was as if he expected her to disappear on the spot as his glare continued to grow more intense, until finally one brow started to relax. "So…You think you can handle them slobberin' Gnolls, eh?"

"I don't think, I know," Raven stated with firmness. She had to be direct and confident with this NPC, as he appeared to be the type that didn't like to waste time.

"Is that so?" Grum snapped at her while crossing his arms over his massively broad chest. It looked like he was going to be difficult, then the edge of his lip curled up into a grin. "Considerin' you actually came up to me," he turned to direct his glare at all the other people that were hovering around the quest board and shouted with distain. "Unlike these spineless curs who won' even look me in the eye!" Meeting her gaze again, he softened his tone. "Al'right, we can give your lot a try. Least you all look like you might know what you're doin'!"

He started to move away from the board and waved for them to follow. Moving to fall in behind Grum, he led them to two massive wagons. Unlike traditional horses, these wagons had four sets of the largest rams any of them had ever seen. Each ram was almost as big as a full-grown bull, crowned by huge horns that corkscrewed over and around either side of their wide heads. There was a group of dwarves busy about the wagons loading them up.

A female dwarf stood on the riding seat of the first wagon, shouting out orders to the rest. They could tell her gender by her softer features, curvier body…and beardless face. She had two blonde ponytails tied back and draping over her broad shoulders. She wore leather armor that seemed to complement her figure but also give her practical coverage of vital areas. Resting on her back was a compound bow and a quiver filled with arrows.

Grum led the aspiring group up to the shouting dwarf ranger. Raven noting a bit of eagerness in his steps as they approached and inwardly smirked. Seemed Grum had a thing for loud blondes. Said blonde finally noticed Grum and her snarled lips lightly softened. "Grum?! Finally found a bunch that won' soil themselves the moment they see a Gnoll pointin' sharp things their way?"

"Seems I managed that, Frei," Grum answered and this time he held back the harsh edge in his words.

Frei may have noticed but seemed to wish to remain professional and eyed the 'adventurers' behind Grum. "Hmm, there sure are a lot of you. Usually it's just three or four rooks that fancy themselves skilled adventurers. But I see there be seven of you? How'd you know seven be my lucky number?"

Grum adverted his gaze as a slight rosiness appeared on his face. "Simply coincidence…just that."

"Mmhmm, well, seein' as there be seven of you lot, and that really is me lucky number. Guess it's worth a shot to give you bunch the quest," Frei confirmed and then whipped her head to the side and shouted very loudly. "Cinda! Get your purple-haired arse out here now! Stop tinkerin' with that rust-bucket toy you'll never get workin'!"

There came a clattering sound of metal from inside one of the wagons and a tiny figure with purple hair done up in a long ponytail hopped out. She was the smallest person Raven had ever seen. She was half a foot shorter than a gnome or a goblin, with a childish innocence that almost made her mistake this little thing for an infant, until she saw the sharp intelligence in her eyes. Face smeared in what looked like grease, the small person tried using an oversized leather glove to try and wipe away some of it off her forehead.

Sitting on her head was a pair of goggles that went with the blacksmith-like attire she wore. Thick boots with a black apron over her front that almost looked like a dress if you looked at her directly. When Raven angled her head somewhat, she saw the small woman was wearing baggy pants and a grey wool shirt and a heavy scarf that might have once been white, but was so stained with grease it was practically black now. What Raven and everyone was looking at…was a Halfling.

"Don't you be calling my greatest work a rust-bucket, Frei! Once I have it up and running, we won't need to worry about hiring anyone to help keep the caravan safe, ever again! Just you watch!" the Halfling declared.

Frei waved her off. "Till then, we be hirin' swords to do the fightin' for us, which from the looks of it will still be a long time a doin'!"

"Humph!" Cinda grunted and crossed her arms over her chest, throwing her chin up in the air, only adding to her child-like charm.

Ignoring the Halfling's outburst, Frei turned back to the group. "Not much of an engineer as she claims to be, least when it comes to makin' golems. But she's good at makin' sure a bunch of rooks like yourselves are fitted for the task at hand. She'll see to repairin' your gear and maybe even improvin' upon it."

"For a fair fee, course," Cinda added sharply.

"True enough, same with any new gear you may be wantin'. That will cost you, but whatever you lot find alon' the way will be considered yours if you find anythin' suitable," Frei nodded to them and then pointed the wagons. "Since we be so 'lucky' as to have seven of you. We're gonna make the most of it. Two of you are gonna ride up front with me, three in the middle and the remaining two in the last wagon. When you're ready to go, decide who wants to ride where. We're ready to head out now."

As soon as the dwarf had finished talking, everyone in the group suddenly had a window notice appear in front of them.

 _Quest Alert!_

" _Ride them Wagons!": (Keep Frei's caravan safe during the trip to the growing capital city. Mission Objectives: Slay 10 Gnolls, All wagons survive. Reward: 10 gold, 100+ reputation with Frei's Caravan, 100+ reputation with Capital of Zenoth. Other rewards vary depending on difficulty changes during quest!)_

 _Accept: Yes/No?_

The smile on Raven's face was infectious as everyone finished reading the notice. This was it! Their first quest! Ten gold would help them a lot once they reached Zenoth, or so they assumed if the currency in this world was like other games. Raven had set up the basic, copper, silver, gold coin standard method of payment, figuring it was easier that way. There were other ways to pay, like gems and platinum. Platinum coins being the highest currency. One thousand gold coins made up one platinum coin, ten silver made a gold coin, and ten copper coin made a silver coin.

She made platinum coins at a higher rate because of the rarity of the metal, and to set a goal for adventurers. It would make the value of gold worth more and sought after over silver and copper, and to keep this world's economy reasonable. She'll have to explain this world's currency system to her comrades, but they'll have plenty of time during the trip to the capital. Now they needed to decide who was going to ride where.

"Mind if I make a suggestion on how we should do this?" Raven asked.

"This is your game. You know how this works better than us, so go on, love," Argent said pleasantly.

Seeing everyone nodding or smiling in agreement, Raven felt a boost of confidence and proceeded. "I think we have one heavy hitter in the first and last wagon. Blackfire, you ride the first wagon along with myself. I can give quick support for you when you jump into a fight. Rose, you ride the last wagon along with Red X. Being another fighter, you'll be our other heavy hitter and Red X will scout for any dangers that might be trying to sneak up on us. Argent, Robin, and Jinx will ride in the middle wagon and give support to whichever wagon may need it the quickest."

No one disagreed with her decision. It was a balanced formation for the situation. If they were attacked by either end, they'd have a defender to give time for the others to either join in, or to watch out for other ambushes. Leaving Argent with the two main casters would provide them enough protection and time to cast their spells. Hopefully, if they are ambushed, it'll come from the front, which was why Raven wanted Blackfire and herself there. Being a barbarian, Blackfire's strength would be more ideal to handle a full-frontal attack, leaving Raven to remain on the wagon and using her songs to even Blackfire's odds. She didn't have a song to heal yet, but she could make sure Blackfire didn't take as much damage with what she had. Quicken Tempo would ensure Blackfire could get enough good hits with the increase bonus in her Speed and Dexterity, while using Blinding Melody would help blind any range attackers that tried to whittle her health down from afar.

Having Rose and Red X in the back would ensure they wouldn't be surprised if they were attacked from behind. Both were quick and agile fighters and could react fast enough to keep their rear safe. Robin was the main member of the party she had to make sure was protected. Pulling up his character sheet now that they were all in the same party, she looked at his stats.

 _Name: Robin_

 _Race: Half-Elf  
Character Level: 1_

 _Attributes:_

 _-HP: 160 (1.5 when not in combat)_

 _-MP:290 (1.2 regen rate)_

 _-SP: 170 (1.4 regen rate)_

 _-Strength: 4_

 _-Constitution: 8 (5+ for class profession) 13_

 _-Intelligence:10 (5+ for racial perks) 15_

 _-Dexterity: 7 (4+ for racial perks) 11_

 _-Agility: 9_

 _-Wisdom:11 (5+ for class profession) 16_

 _-Charisma 7_

 _-Luck: 8_

 _Class: Druid_

 _Class Traits:  
-Druidcraft  
-Spellcasting_

 _-Animal Lore  
-Level 1_

 _Spell List:_

 _-Nature's Wrath (Caster fires a bolt of nature magic at target, dealing 15x1 damage per casting) MP Cost: 10_

 _-Healing Touch (Caster heals 120 HP to single target) MP Cost: 30_

 _Racial Traits: Half-Elf_

 _-Mental fortitude (Half-Elf/Half-Breed perk: 50% increase rate.)  
-Spiritual Awareness (50% increase rate for having elven blood.)_

 _-Mana Manipulation (50% increase rate for having elven blood.)_

 _-Physical Fortitude (40% increase rate for having Human blood.)_

 _Note: If you desire to obtain more traits, must seek them out through trial, tomes, and a little luck._

 _EXP: 0/150 to next level_

He had an offensive and a healing spell. That would be handy when things got tough and keep the party alive. Once she learned her first healing song, then he and her could focus solely on support for everyone. At least until they all settled on what main path they wanted to follow. She knew Robin well enough that he would want to go with a fighter class as soon as possible, but was trying to be a good sport and help balance things out. Hopefully, everyone would learn one kind of healing spell or ability at some point, but for now at least they could get by until they could afford potions and medical supplies.

Truthfully, she would want everyone to learn First Aid as soon as possible. There was no telling when the group would be split up, or forced to take care of their own injuries until they could get to a healer. That's why she made things so versatile as she did. Taking a page from the game Skyrim: why only focus on one thing? They were in for a long-haul…everything she could to prepare them now would save them much grief later.

Suddenly, Raven's eyes widened in alarm. "DAMN! I almost forgot!"

Upon hearing Raven actually curse, Robin turned to her quickly. "What is it?"

"Respawn point!" Raven blurted out and then started looking frantically around.

"We have respawn points?" Argent asked.

Raven suddenly urged everyone to the side again, away from the caravan so none of the NPCs would overhear. Once they were far enough, she whispered to them. "I completely forgot about how respawns work here! And before you ask Red X, no, all of us dying won't end the game! I made it so we can keep going even if the entire group is wiped out, since there isn't a saving function to use…which I'm seriously going to add next chance I get."

"And a log-out option," Red X grumbled.

"That, too…yeah, seriously going to tweak things when we get out of here," Raven said with an apologizing tone.

"I'm still unfamiliar with most of your earth games, but from what you just said, we can't die?" Blackfire mused with a very eager smile. Immortality had always been a goal for her…what self-respecting Empress, even a former one, didn't dream of being immortal and ruling her world forever?

"We can still die, but we just don't stay dead. After a time-period, we'll come back to life at a respawn point…which will be whichever graveyard we'll be closet to, but only we can respawn," Raven said meaningfully, pulling everyone closer to whisper softer. "That means…if any NPC we encounter dies…they die for good, unless there is a healer that knows resurrection spells, and even then, those are not going to be common."

"So what if the NPCs die? That just means we don't have to deal with them again after we kill them," Red X brushed off, earning a death glare from Robin.

"It also means that if any NPCs that we allied with die, we lose whatever support we may get from them! Not to mention if we do nothing to save them, we lose reputation with them and whatever faction they are aligned to," Raven replied sharply.

"Oh, so that's why we get those reputation points from the quest," Blackfire said, wondering what was so good about receiving those.

"Yeah, the more reputation we gain with the NPCs the more options and pathways open up for us. Especially if we want to start learning other class skills and traits. We need to get as many of them on our side as possible!" Raven said, giving Red X a meaningful look.

Red X rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine, fine…don't kill the NPCS." Then he quickly added with a wicked smirk. "The beneficial ones, at least…"

Robin frowned and wanted to add no killing at all, but then remembered that this was supposed to be like a real video game. Their first quest stated they would have to slay ten Gnolls once they encountered them: so that was going to be unavoidable. He would just have to get used to that if they were going to beat this game world, whether he liked it or not. This wasn't Jump City or Gotham. Hell, this wasn't even earth anymore.

The rules were all different here and anyone that played any kind of RPG knew that you had to kill to gain EXP, or you'd never get anywhere. What he was having trouble with was how real and life-like the NPCs they've met so far were! If he didn't know any better, he'd have sworn he was talking to a real person! Raven truly outdid herself…or was this because of the game itself? Did it really create this world or did it simply send them to an alternate reality with new bodies?

He felt he should have analyzed the game himself before leaping into this situation. As much as he trusted Raven, he should have been more cautious, so why hadn't he? He didn't know the more he thought about it. It just felt like the right thing to do at the time, and if he was honest with himself. He wanted to make Raven happy. She looked so distraught when Beast Boy blew her off when she tried to show everyone her creation. Seeing how much work and energy she put into this game's creation, how could he not refuse trying it?

 _'Thank god, Bruce won't ever find out about this. He'd never let it down that I leapt before I looked at something that obviously could have been a trap,'_ Robin thought privately.

Pushing that unpleasant thought aside, Robin refocused on the conversation after realizing Raven was talking directly at him. "Hmm, I'm sorry, what?"

Raven gave him a concerned look, but them seemed to think against voicing her worry. They all needed to understand their situation. "Keep focus, Robin. This is critical. Yes, we can't die but when we do, it will split us up. Whoever is respawned will have to travel back to where they died and that could take any amount of time depending on which graveyard we respawn at."

Jinx groaned heavily. "It's bad enough I'm stuck in this small body, but if I get killed out there and respawn somewhere around here? How the hell long do you think it'll take for me to catch up with anyone with these stubbly legs!" she nearly yelled, gesturing once more to her small physique.

Everyone almost slapped their hands over her mouth, Red X beating them to the punch as he had closest and assuming the best agility out of all the group. His metallic hand almost knocked her jaw loose and she yelped in mild pain. Instantly everyone saw her HP bar, which appeared suddenly over her head drop by five points. Jinx flinched back and glared hotly at him, baring her sharp-pointy teeth. "The hell?"

It didn't hurt as much as it should have, but the shock of being struck and then seeing her health bar flash down in the bottom of her vision drop pissed her off more than anything.

"S-sorry," he said quickly, actually sounding worried. He started at his hand and looked back to her. "I didn't think…"

Jinx snapped at him before he could finish. "Next time, try thinking before slapping someone with your hands, you asshole! I'm just glad I didn't get scratched up by those claws! I'm ugly as it is, I don't need scars!"

Red X kept looking at his hand and frowned deeply. He seriously hadn't meant to hurt her, but he didn't take into account that his hands normal anymore. They were metal now and he oddly didn't 'feel' her skin when he smacked her. He felt a sense of pressure and knew he had touched something soft and warm, but it was different than how he used to feel with his hands. It was more like he registered he touched something, but not exact details a simple touch would have told him.

What's more, he caused serious harm with that simple gesture. Was this how Robin's teammate Cyborg felt? Was this the sensation he experienced every day with not having any a real body? What about the rest of his body? Was it entirely dulled sensed like this? He shuddered inwardly at that thought. There were things he'd like to do that required physical interaction. He was a guy after all and he was going to be around a bunch of hot chicks almost throughout this entire game.

Why wouldn't he try getting into one of two of their pants? Blackfire was seriously killing it with the cat-girl look. Argent was an exotic beauty with her draconic-like appearance. Hell, Rose was dead sexy as a demonspawn. Jinx…only exception considering he just got on her bad side. Plus, didn't trust going anywhere near someone with a mouth full of sharp teeth like she had now. There was one set of jewels he considered too precious to ever lose.

Then there was Raven herself. Yeah, she would probably take some time to work on, but it would so be worth it. She was the sexiest elf he ever saw, and he could only imagine what a freak in bed she might really be now. She seemed more personal and open with her feelings compared to the cold fish she had been before they started this game. He could seriously see them having a fun night together. Well, once he figured out how to charm her pants off.

Yet, there would be no point if he could barely feel the experience. Then again, only his hands and forelimbs were metallic. The rest of him still had flesh and once he had a moment of privacy, he'd check all his 'equipment' to make sure of what he was working with. No, he wasn't a narcissist…not by much. It was simply good to get familiar in a body he was going to be spending a lot of time in, or so he was telling himself. It wasn't like the others weren't going to do the same at some point, either.

He returned from his musing when he realized Jinx was still cursing loudly at him. "Look, I already apologized. I'm not going to keep doing that. Besides, look, you're HP already returned, so why are you still yelling at me?"

Its was true, her HP had returned to full bar in mere moments, and yet she still looked like she was going to chew his face off. "I'll yell at you all I want! You're not the one stuck in a midget body!"

The thief rolled his eyes and then held up his hands in a time-out gesture. "Okay, pipsqueak. I'm stopping you there. You're gonna have plenty of time to take your issues out on the Gnolls were gonna be hunting down. Save that aggression for them."

Not waiting to see what the ex-villain-turned-goblin would say after that, Red X turned away from them all and headed for the last wagon and hopped on, then accepted the 'Yes' option to for the quest. As soon as he did, a twenty second countdown appeared just slightly above their vision, what Raven needed to explain to her friends as their HUB screen. Once they had a chance to rest, she'd go over the basic game mechanics.

"Looks like we have to start or it starts for us," Rose remarked and headed after the rogue and joined him in their assigned wagon, urging everyone to quickly accept the quest before the timer ran out, and they all did.

Argent and Robin had to bodily pick up Jinx who was still in the middle of a fit and raging, kicking her legs and spouting mutilating threats she planned to do to the rogue when she got her chance. As the three got into the center wagon, Raven couldn't help but wander…was Jinx this angry because she was playing as a goblin, whom were know to be very short-tempered and quick to act, or was this really how Jinx was when she was upset.

It didn't occur to her until just now that maybe playing as a different race would affect their original personalities. She wasn't sure if she had set a limiter for that. Another thing to add to her list to modify her game after they got out of this. She'd have to experiment to see if that theory was correct. When she got into the first wagon with Blackfire, she felt now was a good time to try and ask her a key question.

"How you feeling?"

The feline ex-express turned to Raven and gave her a long blink. "Excuse me?"

"You know what I said," Raven said, knowing full well Blackfire understood her.

"Look, I'm here to just have fun. Not do the goodie-goodie thing you hero-types like to do and tell your 'besties' all your personal feelings, okay?" Blackfire retorted, using her clawed fingers to make quotation marks in the air at the specific word.

"I'm not asking you for that. I'm asking…how do you feel…compare to before you entered the game," Raven pressed, keeping direct with her. Blackfire was a bitch, even if Starfire was reluctant at times to admit that herself. Raven wasn't fooled by her attitude toward everyone around her. If she was going to get any answers from the space villain, she had to be straightforward.

Blackfire sighed in irritation and rolled her eyes, but she didn't ignore the question. She looked down at one of hand and flexed her claws out, admiring how they gleamed in the bright sunlight. She kept admiring her claws and after a few seconds more, Raven figured Blackfire was going to brush her off, then suddenly she spoke up.

"I feel…free."

"Can you explain it more?" Raven urged her, really wanting to know what she meant by that.

Blackfire seemed focused on her thoughts before she answered, trying to find the right explanation. "I feel like there's nothing I can't do. I can go where I want, say what I want. There's a confidence I hadn't had since I was…" she stopped abruptly and glared at the sky. "Forget it, it's not important."

"Blackfire…we don't know each other well enough to talk like this. I understand, but if you can tell me more about that feeling, I'll listen. Whenever you want to," Raven assured her, amazed she got that much out of the wicked alien empress.

Blackfire scoffed at her and kept her eyes up at the bright blue sky. "You'll be in for a long wait then…" Then she did another unsurprising thing and smiled. "…But thanks for not pushing the issue."

Raven smiled back. That was unexpected but it was a good start. Maybe there was a side to Blackfire no one knew, or maybe it was the game giving her that freedom she spoke about to finally be herself…much like it was doing for her. The wagon jolted as it began moving and Raven looked out over the driver's shoulders to the hilled roads head of them.

Their first journey…had begun.

xXx

 **A/N:** And they're off! The story is off and our characters are starting to realize things are going to be changing...for better or for worse still remains to be seem.

Okay, here's a list of the stories that I've been reading that had inspired me to try a hand at writing Litrpg. If you haven't read these, I urge you to do so and give your support to these fantastic writers! This is just a small list of stories that I personally love. If you are interested in more, leave a review and a like, and I'll add another list of books to check out! Again, if you read these and like them, give these writers your support!

 **Life Rest: New Era Online** by Sheme Kuznits

 **The Land: Chaos Seed series** by Aleron Kong

 **Dante's Immortality: Beginnings** by Antonio Terzini

 **Ascend Online** by Luke Chmilenko

 **Stuff and Nonsense: Theardbare series** by Andrew Seiple

 **Morningwood: Everyone Loves Large Chests** by Neven Illiev

 **Eden's Gate: A LITRPG** adventure by Edward Brody

 **Dan the Barbarian** by Hondo Jinx

 **Dragon Seed: Archemi Online** by James Osiris Baldwin

 **Level Up or Die!: Underworld series** by Apollos Thorne

 **Dungeon Born: Divine Dungeon series** by Dakota Krout

 **The Ritualist: The Completionist series** by Dakota Krout


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